


Ansare | YMX x F! Reader

by crestedhearts (orphan_account)



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Deviates From Canon, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:40:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 25
Words: 47,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23021866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/crestedhearts
Summary: In which [Name] [Surname] makes friends with the infamous Xehanort, unaware of the fate that future has in store for all of them.[YMX x Fem! Reader]
Relationships: Xehanort (Kingdom Hearts)/Reader
Comments: 16
Kudos: 36





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written post-KH3, before Re:Mind, and the Dark Road reveal. Some things will be inaccurate and wrong, so I have labeled this an AU and adapted accordingly. I hope you enjoy!

❝ YOU ARE THE LOVE  
THAT CAME WITHOUT  
WARNING; YOU HAD MY  
HEART BEFORE I COULD  
SAY NO. ❞

❥

If there was one thing [Name] [Surname] would never understand, it was how her friend came to her house borderline exhausted, ready to collapse where he stood, and yet still insisted on spending time with her like a normal person should.

Every day, without fail, he found his way into her shop, tired and littered with shallow flesh wounds. She had never found him absent, even when he was sick with a cold or something more serious, and even then, he would slap a mask on and trudge through the front door without a care in the world.

But now, as she stared him down from across the bar in her kitchen, it was just getting ridiculous.

He lay sprawled on her couch, one arm draped across her throw pillow and the other dangling loosely over the edge. His feet dangled over the arm rest, clad in boots that he had never taken off, and if she squinted, she could see the tips of his white hair peeking over the back border.

Xehanort was always crafty with hiding the bruises and wounds, but in the rare moments she found him asleep, like now, she could see every single one of them on the skin he exposed. Over the past few months, they'd gotten bigger, all of them in various stages of healing along with the lesions and scratches. She tried to be sneaky when using her cura spells on him, but one way or another he always found out that she used them, whether it be waking up as she was doing it or just looking at the bruise or wound.

Carefully, [Name] set down the finished pan of stir fry, eyeing the arm she could actually see from her position. Almost every inch of skin she could see was mottled with blue, yellow, purple, or mixtures of either, completely blotting out the bronze of his skin, which was worse than the last time she had saw him, that being yesterday. He told her his training sessions were unnecessarily harsh, she knew that wielding a keyblade was difficult, but she wasn't sure if he could discern the line between simple training and abuse.

But that's ridiculous, because he'd know more about it than you, being able to travel worlds and all. The [color] haired girl scooped a portion of food into a bowl with a sigh, looking at her friend again but this time with a fresh wave of pity. He was so sweet and kind to her, but was there anyone there for him in that lonely tower?

Chewing on her lip now, she filled a glass with water and walked to the couch, setting the bowl down with it. He still slept soundly as ever, and with a small, sharp inhale, [Name] glanced over his face as her stomach started churning. On one side of his cheek, easily larger than any fist she or himself could make, laid the largest, most painful bruise she had ever seen in her life. Unlike his other ailments, this was fresh and untouched, showing just how exhausted he was. Normally, he would take the time to heal it to look a few days old, not that she didn't notice he did it for her sake.

Huffing, she cast a simple cura spell and held the green glowing ball in her palm. He would always remark on the differences between his healing spells and hers; where his were always bordering on painful and cold, hers would always be warm and comforting, and had said once or twice that she had a natural aptitude for healing magic. Hopefully, she would be able to do it without waking him up yet.

Lowering the ball to his face, she watched with bated breath as the healing spell sunk into his skin with a sickly glow. However, she never got to see if it worked or not.

His hand flew up and grabbed her wrist, pushing it away from his face. Though it wasn't painful or anything close to it, she found it a bit hurtful that his first reaction was to push her hand away. But if she was right about the abuse, then... he had a right to, didn't he?

"I thought I told you to stop wasting your magic on me," he grumbled lowly, opening one steely gray eye to focus on her hovering face above him. "I can heal them myself."

[Name] frowned and tugged her wrist away, scooting over as he moved to a sitting position. "Well, if you didn't look like a walking punching bag every time I see you, I wouldn't have to."

Xehanort gave her a sleepy glower, which wasn't intimidating with the haze of sleep currently pulling at his eyelids. "[Name]..."

"Okay, okay," she sighed, holding her hands up in surrender. "I made you dinner, but you fell asleep before I finished... So..."

The [e/color] eyed girl waved suggestively at a blue and white faux China bowl sitting on the coffee table, sinking back into the couch with a small pout on her face, mostly at the fact she had been caught and second for being stupid enough to think she could get away with it.

She couldn't see it, but his eyes softened considerably. "You didn't have to do that for me. I could have just picked something up from one of the vendors on my way back."

"And waste your munny?" [Name] asked incredulously. "Not on my watch! Plus, all of them would have been closed by now; you slept an awfully long time."

Suddenly, he groaned and plopped back down on the couch, burrowing his head in the same pillow he'd been cuddling for the past two hours. "Ugh, I'm going to die at practice tomorrow for this."

"Xehanort?" Alarm and concern mingling in her voice, she reached over and put her hand on his shoulder. It was a considerable task, considering he was sprawled over the other half of the couch and far from her. "I'm sorry, I should have woke you up⎯⎯you just looked so tired when you came in..."

He laid there, stiff under her hand for a few moments, before peeking over the frills of the pillow to look at her. "I guess that was my fault." His voice was muffled under the pillow. Then his stomach growled. "What did you cook?"

With a small laugh, she pulled her hand back and picked up the bowl to hand to him. "I made stir fry; the meaty kind, if you're worried."

He took it from her, glanced down at it for a few seconds, and then looked back up towards her face. "Thank you, [Name]."

"You're welcome," she said softly. She eyed the bruise on his cheek, watched as it flexed and he winced as he chewed. "But you know you don't have to thank me for cooking for you, Xehanort."

He gave her that sleepy glower again, but it was filled with more amusement than the previous. When he finished swallowing, he said,"Of course I do. You probably weren't going to cook anything anyways and eat junk food instead, so now you have to eat actual food because you took time out of your evening to cook for me. So, yes, I do."

Guilt gnawed at her. She didn't know he noticed that about her. "I don't eat junk food all the time..."

He gave her a look that said otherwise and finished off his food, then took a few swigs of the water to wash it all down.

[Name] watched as he put the bowl back on the table where she'd had it before, then said,"You know, when I see all of those bruises, I can't help but wonder... Your master doesn't... He doesn't... Um..."

"Hmm?" He looked at her again, but this time it was with a carefully guarded gaze that she'd never seen on him before.

"I⎯⎯Nevermind." She looked away. "It's stupid."

Xehanort made a small noise and turned to her, crossing his left ankle over his knee. In a sense, it was his way of giving her his undivided attention. "It's not stupid if you're bringing it up. Go on, now I'm curious."

"No." [Name] scrunched her nose and looked anywhere but at his face, where she knew she would cave and spill her guts if she did. "You'll probably leave if I do."

"[Name]," he deadpanned,"I won't leave just because of something you said that might offend me."

"It won't... offend you..." She cringed, picking up a pillow and clutching it to her stomach. "It'll just probably make you really mad."

He sighed, leaning back and grabbing his own pillow to mirror her actions. "Fine, if I get mad, I won't say anything. If I do get offended, I'll tell you. Deal?"

She stared at him, mumbling under her breath,"That's the problem, you dolt." Then she sighed too, blowing hair out of her face. "Okay, deal."

[Name] felt oddly relieved when he chose to stare at the ceiling instead of at her face like he normally would.

"Well, I'm waiting."

"This is hard, okay?" She nudged his knee with her own. "Just... let me get my words straight."

At that, he glanced over at her, steel colored eyes dark with thought, before returning his gaze to the ceiling. "It must be horrible if you have to actually get your words straight before you speak."

"Oh my gods, Xehanort, shut up and let me think!"

He laughed quietly, muffling it with his pillow.

A few moments later, after he'd fallen silent, and [Name] had finally gathered her courage and words, she started to speak.

"Okay, ah... I know keyblade training is hard." She watched his face for a reaction, but all she saw was an eyebrow raising towards his hairline. "I know you fight each other with giant keys and magic and stuff, I know that. Just like I know training doesn't explain the giant bruises you come here with."

Both of his eyebrows were now furrowed into a frown, but he didn't speak, so she took that as a sign to continue.

"Xehanort, I gave it the benefit of doubt. I truly did. But they keep getting worse, and larger, so... I want to know if... um... does⎯⎯your master, he doesn't... abuse you, does he?"

When he didn't make a move to reply, [Name] almost had three heart attacks in the silence, and wanted to slam her head into the coffee table for making an assumption, but then he started talking... and with every word, her heart shattered into millions of pieces.

"I should have guessed I was pushing it with the training excuse." He looked over at her, but his eyes were far away, somewhere she couldn't see. "You were always a bit too smart for your own good."

"I'll kill him." The words that came out of her mouth shocked her; even Xehanort returned from his daze to gawk at her. "Your master; I'll kill him if he ever touches you again."

"[N]-[Name]..." Xehanort blinked dumbly.

"Don't '[Name]' me," she hissed. "I'm telling you, Xehanort, if he hurts you again, I'll be on the next carrier to Scala ad Caelum to kick his ass."

He sighed, then, leaning back on the couch arm again. "You don't understand, [Name], it's⎯⎯"

"I think I understand plenty." Her tone was dangerously low, and she continued,"And what about your friend? Eroo? Eruru? What does he do when you're getting beaten?"

"[Name] ⎯⎯"

"No, I honestly want to know!" [Name] grabbed both of his forearms and pulled him forward, so close that their noses would probably touch if they were any closer. "Where is he?"

Xehanort gave her a considering look, staring her dead in the eye, and then said slowly,"I take the beatings for him. Eraqus. He doesn't know."

Blinking rapidly to rid tears from her eyes, her grip on his arms slackened. "I... Xehanort, but... There are other masters! Other, non-abusive teachers!" She kept her voice to a whisper, as if the knowledge was a dark secret.

"You don't think I know that?" He pulled back slightly, away from her face so he could reach up and wipe them from her face. "I've tried. Trust me. These bruises are from my latest attempt to try and find a way out."

"You asshole." She sniffed, rubbing her nose with a sleeve. "I know King Mickey, damnit. If I'd known, I'd have called him years ago."

"I⎯⎯what? Mickey?" Xehanort, bewildered, watched as she stood up, pulled away from him, and picked up his bowl and glass. "You know Master Mickey?"

"Uh-huh." [Name] waved her hand around the house. "How do you think I got here? He was kind enough to help me out and buy this place."

"But... I thought you⎯⎯?"

"Bought it myself?" She shook her head, pulling out a bag of mooglios and can of paopu fruit soda. "No, I didn't have a penny. Do you want some?"

"No," he said quickly, then rushed,"So if you called the King, do you think he would help us?"

Her face was still flushed from the few tears she had shed, and the anger she was keeping carefully contained, but she acted like she thought about it before answering. "Sure. Mickey always wants to help, no matter who it is."

Xehanort nodded, then glanced outside of her window to see that night had already fallen. "I need to tell Eraqus before⎯⎯"

"Nonononono!" [Name] tossed her mooglios and can of soda on the coffee table, clearing the table itself and using all of her body weight to pin him to the couch. "You can't! If you go back this late and want to see Erawuwu, your master will automatically think its fishy!"

Though his breath had left him somewhere between feeling her knee in his ribs or her elbow in his chest, he choked out,"Eraqus, and I doubt he's awake by this time⎯⎯"

"Not happening!"

"[Name], I'm being serious!" Xehanort managed to push her up and above him, able to regain his breath once she was. "We have training sessions every three to four hours, including tonight. If I miss, Eraqus could..."

When he trailed off, [Name] sighed and gave him a long, good glare, before scooting back and getting back in her original spot. "Fine. Fine. But when you're done and your master's asleep, I want you to bring Eroo and I'll call Mickey. Deal?"

He didn't seem to like it, but gave a tired little nod. "Deal."

It didn't help [Name] sleep any easier at night to know he was being beaten while Eraqus was none the wiser, but when he managed to climb through her upstairs window, innocent friend at his side, a few more extra shiners to boot, she knew he would be okay as long as he was at her side.

But how long would that last?

❥


	2. Chapter 2

❝ IN CASE YOU EVER  
FOOLISHLY FORGET:  
I AM NEVER NOT THINKING  
OF YOU. ❞

❥

Curled up silently on the couch, Eraqus dozed in and out of sleep as his friend and an unnamed female conversed angrily⎯⎯he'd call it hissing because that was all they seemed to be able to do⎯⎯over the multitudes of bruises that had shown up brilliantly in the past half hour or so. For him, he really just wanted to return to the tower and sleep until dawn, but with Xehanort promising an explanation and free food, he couldn't find it in him to reject the plea... But if they kept arguing at this rate, he was going to starve before Xehanort could ever go through with that promise.

"This is ridiculous!" [Name] was speaking harshly over the long dial tone of the magic hologram, hands wrapped around the silver haired male's forearm and holding it as close to her eyes as she could. "Look at them! These are horrible; did you even use a protect spell?"

Eraqus blinked groggily at that. So the lady friend knew magic?

"I didn't have the time," was his friend's low reply. He pulled his arm away from her gently, prying her fingers from the wrist guards on his arm, but that didn't stop her from grappling for his shirt instead. "Just⎯⎯it will be fine, [Name]. I'll be fine. If all goes to plan, I won't have to deal with this much longer, and you won't have to worry."

Frowning, the young keyblader sat up and peered over the back of the couch. From the angle he had been laying in, he could only see arms and heads, but now that he was staring at them over the wooden frame, he could see that the [short/tall] girl had his friend by the lapels of his shirt and was speaking fiercely to him. The ferocity of her words made him want to curl up and hide in a hole for all eternity, and they weren't even aimed towards him!

[Name] exhaled heavily through her nose and released his shirt, turning back to the kitchen and making her way to the magically frozen fridge. "I hate this. I hate it, Xehanort⎯⎯if I'd known earlier, I swear..."

"You didn't know because I didn't want you to." As her back was turned, Xehanort caught Eraqus' eye over the back of the couch, glowering at him with such daring that he made himself scarce beneath a frilly pillow. "Stop blaming yourself."

Eraqus flinched when he heard something being thrown, and hard.

"I'll stop blaming myself when I'm good and ready, curse you!" [Name] pulled out an arm full of frozen vegetables and a large pack of chicken leg quarters. "Now sit down and entertain your friend while I make food and call Mickey before I decide to strangle you in your sleep."

Sighing quietly, Xehanort moved away from the kitchen and to the couch, where his second friend was cowering in terror beneath a frilly pink pillow that he almost always claimed as his own every time he laid on it. It was [Name]'s pillow, technically, but he'd secretly claimed it as his. "Are you awake enough yet?"

"Not quite." Eraqus sat up, bright eyed, and glanced at the [color] haired woman who was furiously pouring wine into a pan. "I... She isn't going to eat me, is she?"

Xehanort blinked. "[Name]? Of course not. She wouldn't hurt a fly."

The boy's eyes bugged and he mumbled quietly,"That is not what I saw a few minutes ago."

"Perhaps that's not right⎯⎯she would take any chance to throw things at me," the male flinched when a string bean was tossed at his head,"but she's harmless. Mostly, anyways."

"How are you even friends?" Eraqus looked back over again, this time going between the two confusedly. "She looks like she could beat you and stuff you in trash bin."

"Maybe." He shrugged, crossing his arms and placing his ankle over his knee. "But she wouldn't."

[Name] huffed to herself, attempting to ignore their quiet conversation, and busied herself with cooking food. Her anger and worry was simmering just below the surface, ready to rear it's ugly head and take a chunk or two out of the world, but it was ridiculous because he was here, in her home, safe and where his master would never find him. That should have been, at least, a small amount of comfort to her, but seeing the bruises had ripped away any semblance of peace she had and replaced it with fury.

"Ah, hello? Is this thing on?"

Whirling around, she saw that the call had finally connected and sighed in relief. "Mickey! I need your help!"

"Oh my, [Name]? Is that you?" Mickey squinted at the screen, then jerked back in shock. "It is you!"

"Sorry for the late notice," she said softly, brushing strands of hair away from her face. "But this is really important, and I wouldn't call you otherwise."

"[Name]," Xehanort said loudly and pointed to her skillet on the stove. "Your food's going to burn."

"Darn it!" Moving back to the stove and bringing the call device with her, she scooped up the finished vegetables and flipped the chicken over to cook on another side.

"Is something wrong?" Mickey asked. "There aren't any heartless on-world, are there?"

"I wish that was the least of my problems," she pouted, and then looked pointedly at Xehanort, gesturing to the device for him to take. "I'm going to let you speak to my friend; he can explain it better than I can for you."

Wordlessly, he took it from the spot on the counter and brought it back to the couch and laid it on the coffee table. Eraqus silently gawked at the image of the mouse on the screen, but he didn't in the face of more pressing matters, and went on to speak.

"Master Mickey, I am⎯⎯"

"Gosh, I know who you two are!" The mouse exclaimed. "Xehanort and Eraqus, right?"

"Yes." Xehanort traded confused glances with Eraqus, who gave him a clueless shrug in response. "[Name] was hoping you could help with our... predicament."

In his haste, he'd forgotten that he'd never told Eraqus exactly what was going on. It was his intention to do it before Mickey answered, on the ride to [Name]'s home, but those plans had been quickly dashed in the face of her anger, which was much more terrifying when she was half asleep.

"Well, what's wrong?" Mickey's face, no matter how blurred in the monitor, was concerned. "[Name] isn't in any trouble, is she?"

"No," Xehanort sighed and shook his head. "It's much more... complicated."

[Name] scrunched her nose and turned the heat down to medium. She knew he wouldn't say it out loud, at least in front of Eraqus and Mickey; he was too proud, too ashamed of it to do that. The chicken was almost done, anyways, so she moved around the kitchen counter and picked up the hologram from the coffee table.

"Don't let my food burn," she gave a pointed look to Xehanort, then glanced at Eraqus, saying,"and explain to Erwa here what's been going on."

He had the nerve to look guilty, at least, but she was probably the only one besides the boy beside him that could get that out of a muscle tic in his jaw. "Fine."

Nodding to herself, [Name] walked outside where she hoped they couldn't hear her, and started speaking to Mickey.

"Sorry. He wasn't going to tell you outright," she apologized. "But anyways, what I tell you has to... well, no, this is probably better said in person. The situation is really bad, Mickey..."

"That's okay, [Name]. I understand." The mouse narrowed his eyes thoughtfully, then snapped his fingers. "It must be about their master, isn't it?"

"I... yeah," the [color] eyed girl blinked, shock overcoming her features. "How did you⎯⎯?"

"I had a feeling it would come to this." Mickey shook his head. "But so early in their training...? Look, [Name], you don't have to tell me what happened. I'll be there as quickly as I can, and... I'll even take over their mentoring myself, if I have to."

"Mickey, that's too much..." [Name] trailed off when he gave her a stern look. "Okay, we'll talk about it when you get here, just... Don't... Try not to push him, okay?"

"Alright. I'll see you in a few hours, okay?"

"Will do, Mickey."

Cutting off the hologram and wiping any traces of magic from it, she turned around and faced the door uncertainly. Xehanort was more than likely explaining what had been going on, and [Name], hard headed and angry at him as she was, wasn't keen on interrupting the conversation, no matter how sad the voices sounded on the other side.

"Maybe I should take up magic lessons again," she mumbled to herself thoughtfully. "It wouldn't hurt, and I could help fight heartless along the way... But who would teach me?"

The [color] haired girl kept the conversation with herself going until the voices faded and an uncomfortable, stiff silence replaced it. Xehanort had kept his tone modulated through it all, but Eraqus had been the one to break out the waterworks first, and all of the anger with it. Those fuses eventually blew out and left him silent, so [Name] took that as a cue to walk back in.

Opening the door a smidge, she poked her head through the crack and took a quick look at the two boys sitting on the couch. They were caught in what she could only describe as the manliest bro-hug she had ever seen, not quite close enough to be emotional but a bit too odd to be completely habit.

Clearing her throat, she asked, quietly,"Are we good?"

Startled, Eraqus jerked away quickly, but Xehanort lingered, as if not quite sure what to do with his extended arms, and then dropped them to his lap. His face was as neutral as ever, but she swore she could pick out the miniscule smile on his face. "I⎯⎯I guess, but... I'm still mad at you for not telling me, Xehanort."

"Not so fine then," [Name] mumbled under her breath acerbicly, edging back to the stove to complete her food. It was already thoroughly cooked and just needed to simmer a bit, so she pulled two cans of soda out and left them on the counter. It didn't help that she'd stress eaten all night and devoured her stash of mooglios, before moving on to her chocoborel candies...

"You would have confronted him, and earned yourself more than you asked for." Xehanort tilted his head and closed his eyes. "It's in the past, now, isn't it?"

Eraqus frowned. "That doesn't mean it's okay to just keep things like that to yourself, you know."

"I didn't." He opened one eye and, under the light of the several lamps lit with light magic, it looked almost gold. "I told [Name], in not so many words."

"But you didn't tell her outright, now did you?"

"He didn't." Said female walked up to the coffee table, two bowls in hand and soda cradled in her elbows. "But there's never a proper time to talk about those kinds of things. I figured it out on my own, for the most part."

Eraqus quickly helped her unload her arms, taking the bowls while Xehanort popped open the cans of soda. "You aren't going to eat?"

[Name] shrunk in on herself when Xehanort leveled his gaze on her, deep and penetrating, and gave him a sheepish smile in return. "I've already stress eaten, so..."

"[Name]," he said lowly, warningly. "I thought we talked about this."

"We did," she said, picking at the lint on her dress. "I just... kind of ignored it."

Eraqus didn't like the vibe either of them were giving off, so he dug in cheerfully, then remarked loudly over their silent conversation,"This is delicious! Thank you for the food, uh⎯⎯I don't think I ever actually got your name... or introduced myself..."

Xehanort didn't seem too worried by it, but by [Name]'s horrified expression, it was as if the world was ending. "I am so sorry! I'm [Name], Xehanort's friend. And I already know your name!"

"You do?" Eraqus glanced over at his silver haired friend in curiosity when he started cringing.

"Yup." She nodded matter-of-factly. "It's Eruwu."

"I..." He didn't know how to tell her with the proud, determined face she was wearing. "That's... not right."

[Name] frowned. "It isn't?"

"His name is Eraqus," Xehanort corrected, then shrugged. "I tried to tell you, but you kept getting it wrong."

"I think I remember something like that." Eraqus sighed in relief when she switched the topic. "Anyways, Mickey will be here in a few hours, so you both might want to get some sleep before he does."

Xehanort, however, had stiffened, and was eyeing Eraqus cautiously, then making slow, deliberate calculations in his head. [Name] only had one couch, two extremely uncomfortable recliners, and one bedroom which belonged to her that he'd only seen once. Then he looked at her, eyes narrowed. "And where, exactly, will we be sleeping?"

She shrugged, not noting the fierce look he was pointing her way. "I was thinking Eraqus could take the couch and you could sleep in my room. I don't think I'm going to get a whole lot of sleep, anyways, so you might as well use it."

"No."

"What?" [Name] gaped.

"I said no. I'm not taking your bed. I'll sleep in the recliner or on the floor," Xehanort said curtly. "If worse comes to worse, I'll kick Eraqus off the couch."

"Hey!"

"You know as well as I do that those recliners are nothing but junk," she said, ignoring the dark haired boy's sudden defensive exclamation. "Don't test me, Xehanort."

He stood up from the couch, setting his bowl aside, and [Name] was suddenly very intimidated because, temper aside, he dwarfed her and had a very large weapon at his disposal, not that he would use it on her in any way. He could just be very... scary and persuasive like that.

"I am not taking your bed, [Name], and that's final."

"Fine then." She huffed, then watched him slowly unwind and relax, and had an idea. "We'll just have to compromise!"

He just wouldn't like it that much, was all.

❥


	3. Chapter 3

❝ I THINK WE'RE JUST  
GONNA HAVE TO BE  
SECRETLY IN LOVE WITH  
EACH OTHER AND LEAVE  
IT AT THAT. ❞

❥

He didn't like it, she knew he didn't like it, but it was for entirely different reasons that she simply wouldn't understand, even in the right context.

"I don't see the problem." Eraqus stood idly beside the couch, holding his finger up to point at the ceiling. "You're friends, right? Neither of you have non-platonic feelings for each other, so... wedge a pillow in the equation and everyone's happy."

"No, everyone isn't happy," Xehanort scoffed, turning to face his other friend. "It's improper."

[Name] glared at him bitterly. "I think it's my decision to decide what's improper or not, Xehanort."

"Since when did you care what was proper or not?" Eraqus squinted. "I thought that was my job."

"When it involves my friend, I do, and it's not going to happen."

"Says you." [Name] mumbled, then sighed. "Fine, do what you want. I'm tired now, so... Eraqus, you need some sheets and a blanket, right?"

As she tromped off down the hall, Xehanort cut a fierce glare at Eraqus, hissing,"Why are you taking her side?"

"I don't know if you noticed or not, but she probably wants to talk to you about... everything." The boy watched as Xehanort's angry face slowly morphed into one of reluctant realization. "I still want to talk to you about it, you know, but... I think just that vague explanation will do for now."

"Why?" Xehanort inquired, peering down the hall. [Name] was still shielded by the door, piling unsuitable blankets in her arms as she rummaged for a good one. "It's not... I would have told her everything if she asked."

Eraqus sighed and plopped down on the couch, giving an exaggerated groan. "You're compartmentalizing and I don't like it. It isn't healthy, and she probably knows that too, you know? You don't give off a lot of emotion to show it bothers you and it's really disturbing to see you speak about it with a straight face."

He raised an eyebrow, about to inquire further on his lack of emotion, but [Name] came back and tossed a two folded sheets on Eraqus' lap, then left a plush blanket on one of the recliners while he busied himself with pulling the sheet over the cushions.

"That's all I had that wasn't ripped or worn down into nothing, so hopefully they're comfy." She fidgeted in place, glancing at the back of Xehanort's head, then yawned. "Well, I'm going to go to bed now, so..."

With a start, he realized she was in pajamas, and had been for the entirety of their conversations. Xehanort usually noticed and, with a little pang of guilt, realized they'd probably woken her up climbing through her window. "[Name]?"

Eraqus tugged the sheet firmly in place, panic taking place in his mind even as he kept his face straight. He was going to hash it out now?

"Hmm?" She glanced back tiredly, scratching her stomach. It took all of five seconds for his eyes to rivet in on the exposed skin where, disturbed and puckered, several scars lay, all of them looking eerily like heartless wounds. She'd stopped scratching and pulled her shirt down, but it was too late. He'd already seen them. "I, uh..."

Peeking over his unfolded sheet, which had tumbled to the floor, Eraqus watched as Xehanort's tan face paled to the point where he looked a sickly shade of beige. He was standing as stiff as a board, just like all the times they were in their master's office, but it was a bit different... what had he missed?

"I was going to... agree to your compromise," he said hastily, looking towards the kitchen and away from her face. "But I think I'll sleep on the recli⎯⎯"

[Name] bolted forward and grabbed his forearm. "Nope, not happening! Come on."

The moment they left the room, it was like an invisible weight had lifted off of Eraqus's shoulders, and he face planted into the couch with a sigh of relief.

"Thank the gods, the tension monsters are finally gone!"

Unaware of Eraqus's relief at their absence, [Name] had dragged Xehanort to her room⎯⎯yes, dragged, because he'd dug his heels in⎯⎯and proceeded to throw pajamas, which were his that he'd shown up in once upon a time, at him.

Holding a pair of sweatpants and shirt in one arm, he took the time to look around her room in mild curiosity. He'd only ever been in it once and that was to retrieve one of her bags of left over mooglios, but nothing had changed since then. The same tacky yellow walls, brown furniture, and pink plaid duvet that clashed with the walls in an overly unpleasant way. Several knicknacks adorned the top of her dresser, and he leaned down to examine them.

Several were from his journeys to different worlds: a wayfinder from the Destiny Islands stained gold, a tiny bat keychain from Twilight Town, several clusters of time frozen flowers from Radiant Garden, and the most recent one, a solid form of pure light. The golden white shard still glowed like the day he'd found it, but had grown significantly and now rested in an unusual diamond shape.

"I didn't know you kept them." He didn't, honestly; he assumed she threw them away or kept them hidden, but never thought about her room. He never had the chance to look around the first time. "The souvenirs, I mean."

[Name] poked her head out from under her covers, hair in disarray and staticky. "Huh? Oh, yeah, I always keep them⎯⎯except for that tub of sea salt ice cream. I ate that."

"I'm not surprised by that," he said dryly, picking up the light crystal. "But I am surprised by this; did you notice it changing?"

"Not really." She shrugged. "I mean, I never paid much attention to it, it was always there, so... Is it bad?"

Xehanort put it down, an odd look on his face, but didn't say anything else other than,"No, just... interesting."

"Okay, well, hurry up and change so we can talk." Then she bundled herself up again, hiding from the world, and he shook his head.

After he'd retreated to the bathroom, changed, and come back, [Name] was sitting upright, holding a can of soda that she'd no doubt gotten from under her bed, and grinned sheepishly at him... with purple teeth.

"I couldn't help it. They were there."

Frowning, he put his clothes down on a chair by the door and crossed his arms. "You've been drinking more than soda, [Name]. Your teeth are purple."

Bringing a hand up to her mouth, she looked at him, horrified. "Are they?"

When he nodded in reply, she began rubbing at her teeth with her fingers or her tongue, but to no avail. Xehanort sat at the foot of the bed, feeling vulnerable for once in his pajamas, and frowned.

"So, what was the real reason you wanted me to sleep in here?" He asked.

"Caught onto that, did you?" [Name] gave him a small shrug, leaning back on her pillow and fiddling with the covers. "I wanted to talk about... everything. You know, without Eraqus listening in."

Seemed his friend was right. Nodding, he sprawled out on the bed width-wise, propping his fist under his chin. "Of course. But only if you tell me about that scar, first."

"That's not fair."

"Compromising, remember?"

She stared at him, wiggling her toes in thought, before nudging his knee in irritation. "Fine, fine. I got it from a Neoshadow on my home world. Your turn."

Xehanort had questions, but out of respect for her privacy and the way she was forcing the nonchalance into her voice, he let it be. She hadn't told him about her past or home world for a reason, his conscious chided him.

"Hmm. Where would you like me to start?"

"Um..." [Name] stared uncertainly at the bedspread and he laughed softly.

"Didn't think that far ahead, did you?"

"No! Yes! Ugh, this is such a mess..." She paused, then said,"Okay, tell me how you first met Eraqus."

He blinked, then stared at the far wall beside her head. "I didn't; we were both chosen, trained together. Friendship came slowly, but eventually."

"Huh." She was glaring at him again, but it was more out of disappointment. "I was expecting something more mushy, like a heartfelt battle of wills."

"If it helps, we did fight over who got light in our chess match once," Xehanort said airily, hoping to diffuse her disappointment, and it seemed to do the trick.

"You can play chess?"

"Yes."

"You've got to teach me how, Xehanort, please? If there's anything I can't beat Mickey at, it's that!"

"If that's what you want."

"Wait, going off topic," she cleared her throat, then started,"So, when did you get your keyblade? No, what does your keyblade look like?"

He held out his hand in front of him, light bursting from his palm, and in two seconds flat, he held his keyblade. [Name] stared in awe, admiring the clock on it and the bright blue metalwork leading up to it. "I got it when I began training. Before, I just had two sabers."

"And I'm guessing I can't hold it, can I?" There was a streak of envy in her voice.

Xehanort hummed in thought, glancing at her underneath his lashes. "I'm not sure. Only potential keyblade welders can hold other's keyblades. You could try, if you want."

[Name] pursed her lips and looked to him for confirmation. When he nodded and held the weapon aloft for her to take, she blew out a breath. "I am going to be so disappointed, aren't I?"

"It's your choice."

Inhaling sharply, she reached out with hesitant fingers, almost brushing the handle, when Xehanort thrust it abruptly into her hand. The weight was in her palm for an instant, but vanished just as quickly, and she pouted at him. "That's so unfair."

He was leaning sleepily on his fist, only looking at her through half lidded eyes, and replied,"Guess so. You're still a powerful mage, so there's that."

"How'd you know I was a mage?" All thoughts of pursuing his emotions on his abuse went right out the window. "I haven't used any magic!"

"It's easy to see." He rolled to his back, moving his arm under his head. "When you're angry or happy, especially. You have little sparks coming off of you, and as a keyblade apprentice, I can see your magic pathways as easily as I could your veins."

She leaned over the covers, resting her chest on her knees, and poked his stomach playfully. It actually hurt her finger, but she asked,"And how do you know I'm powerful?"

Xehanort hesitated for a moment. He had to be picky with his word choice on this one. "It's... more of a feeling. Like when you know someone's dangerous and avoid them on the street, or automatically know friend from foe."

"Like an aura?" [Name] rubbed her eye and moved her legs so she was on her stomach too, feet resting on her pillow. "I wish I had half the skills you do."

"No, you don't."

"Why not?"

"It's not a pleasant experience, knowing light from dark." Xehanort nudged her hand away from repeatedly poking his stomach. "It's fairly painful seeing others turn from one path to another."

"What about me?" She asked suddenly, curiously, and Xehanort went still as death. "What path am I on?"

"I can't tell you that."

"And why not?"

"It's an... unspoken rule." His lips pinched together in a tight frown. "If I tell you, things could change."

"Like... changing history and the future in turn, right?" She sighed and continued poking him, this time on his ribs. "Why have so many powers if you can't use them?"

Xehanort's expression darkened still, and he pushed her hand away again, and said,"I use them, but not for the reasons you might want me to."

She was quiet after that, staring at his hand, which still hovered over her own, preparing to swat it away. "You mean... I don't..."

"It's one of my responsibilities." The word was foul on his tongue. "If a heart is close to darkness, it's my job to... eliminate it before it turns into a heartless."

"Oh. Oh."

"Mm." He looked over at her, then at how her eyes were slowly starting to droop. "Maybe we should save the questions for another time. You're tired."

"So are you," she mumbled, moving and rolling back to her pillow. "I'm not letting that whole chess thing go, you have to teach me."

"Of course."

There was a few moments that passed silently, and he thought she had went to sleep, but then she started to talk.

"Xehanort..?"

"What is it?"

"Why are you still at the foot of the bed?"

"I'm sleeping here. Don't think I'm getting up there with you."

"I can't be that bad to sleep with," she grumbled, then her eyes widened at the double entendre. "I didn't mean it like that."

"I know." Xehanort moved to his stomach and rested his cheek on the duvet. "You're probably not a rough sleeper, but I am."

"You sleep like a log on the couch. I don't know what your definition of rough is, but that isn't it."

"[Name]..."

"If you don't get up here, I'll kick you until you do."

"I'm not doing it."

"Fine then. Freeze to death and beg for mercy at my toes of doom then, why don't you?"

It was clear she was falling asleep by the way her tone grew mumbly, and Xehanort chuckled to himself.

"Sure, whatever makes you happy."

He didn't expect a reply back.

"I'd be happy to have you for, oh, I don't know, the rest of my life or forever. How's that sound?"

Xehanort froze. [Name] did occasionally talk in her sleep and naps, sometimes nonsense, and he looked up cautiously to see that her eyes were closed and her breathing had evened out. But he wasn't so sure that it was the sleep talking...

So he curled up into a ball, put the words out of his head, and tried to go to sleep.

Because the idea of forever was ridiculous, purple teeth or not.

❥


	4. Chapter 4

❝ YOU LOOKED ME IN  
THE EYES FOR A LITTLE  
TOO LONG TO 'NOT HAVE  
ANY FEELINGS FOR ME. '❞

❥

Any thought that Xehanort had of sleeping flew completely out the window the moment he felt the disturbance of heartless in the air. [Name], asleep and blissfully unaware of the horrors lurking around her house, laid curled under her bedspread, one arm slung over a pillow and the other held awkwardly across the other side, as if searching for something she couldn't find.

A bitter frown gracing his lips, he lifted his hand and cast a protectga spell that, done correctly, would last an hour or so, but as worried as he was, only gave him thirty minutes. Against assault, even less, but he doubted they would approach her with the light crystal in her room. But to be safe, he grabbed it off of her dresser and laid it on her nightstand, just within reach of the protectga spell so it wouldn't get knocked off and away from her.

In his mind's eye, he could see the yellow eyes of a normal Shadow slinking around, the multiple tail ends of a Neoshadow's antennae, and the antsy clunking of armor on a Soldier. Far too many to have been a coincidence, but few enough to be passed off as a freak occurence, neither of which he was keen on admitting to just yet. They were far too close to [Name]'s house to just be there coincidentally.

Tapping the first layer of the protectga spell and satisfied with the result, he opened her door as quietly as possible, glancing back once or twice every inch he took, and only saw her nose twitch and eventually, roll over and face plant into a different pillow.

As he shut the door behind him, he found Eraqus standing idly beside the kitchen counter. Keyblade in hand, he peered out the largest window beside the sink, watching several of the Neoshadows flit by underneath the shadow of the trees.

"They're growing bolder," Xehanort observed, coming to a halt at his friend's side. "Perhaps too much bolder."

"Yeah." Eraqus tapped his hand against the hilt of his weapon thoughtfully. "I've never seen them this close to a human home before. [Name]'s still asleep, isn't she?"

"Mm. I set a protectga spell over her before I left, so she should be safe while we take them out."

"Right, then; do you remember protocol?"

While Xehanort and Eraqus got to work on eradicating the shadow threat, [Name] groaned harshly in her sleep, irritated by soft brushes on the bottom of her foot. Thinking it was Xehanort's hand, she kicked out, only to have her foot sink into something not quite solid and as cold as death. Almost immediately, her heartbeat kicked up at the familiarity of it.

Heartless.

Yanking her legs up and catapulting over to the other side of the bed, she caught a glimpse of yellow eyes, insidious shadows, and the slight glimmer of her light crystal before it was swept off of the nightstand and underneath the bed. But it was there, and that was as good as anything she could have hoped for.

The small sheen of a protect spell floated around her and, without looking at the heartless lurking around its edges and prying at the magic, she experimentally willed her magic to come to life. It'd been years since she'd wielded it, almost as long as she'd been friends with Xehanort, and at the thought of his name, she frowned, all determination to summon her magic flatlining. Xehanort. His magic signature was all over the protect spell, no doubt being the one who cast it, so he'd thought she was safe.

"Well, I have a trick or two up my sleeves, too," [Name] said lowly to herself. Her heart felt like it would beat out of her chest the closer her gaze got to the Neoshadow standing right beside her, shadowy hands splayed across the spell, attempting to crush it. "Just need to get the crystal, is all. Right, I can do this."

The urge to vomit hit her, just then, and almost as quickly she broke out in a cold sweat. She'd told herself she could do it, but here she was, clamming up in the face of her old enemy; her mother would be ashamed.

"Damn it," she choked, scrambling for the foot of the bed, away from the monsters. "Come on, come on, just come to me, stupid light crystal!"

When it flew into her hand, as if by her command, which it had, she stared at it dumbly, watching as it morphed into a small ray of yellowish light, a small dagger of lethality against the heartless.

And then the protectga spell began to shudder, cracks fissuring across the clear magic where the Neoshadow was slowly breaking through it. Xehanort had obviously created it without time in mind, hastily done as the spell was, and probably expected to have been back before it completely wore off.

That wasn't the case, after all.

Xehanort had just finished with his last Neoshadow when he felt the spell start to crumble. He hadn't been concerned over it during his battle, focusing on keeping Eraqus' back covered while he took out the less numerous, powerful pests and his friend eliminated the many Shadows and Soldiers that came his way. It was all too uniform to not be organized, but all thoughts of abnormal heartless behavior were pushed to the back of his mind when he heard the fearsome screech of a very terrified and angry [Name].

Eraqus, catching the glint in the other male's eye before he turned away towards the house, made a sound and said,"Go get her, I've got these ones!"

But he'd already bounded over the front yard in a few strides, longer with his panicked run, and the other keyblade wielder only caught a glimpse of his hair vanishing into the hall before he was occupied with another, final swarm of Soldiers.

Xehanort rushed to [Name]'s room, listening to the sounds of something heavy and definitely not heartless hitting the floor for only a second, before ramming it open without any thought to the door knob on it. It broke off and fell uselessly to the carpet, but his eyes were trained solely on [Name], huddled at the side of her bed. The barest fragments of the protect spell lingered and she'd pooled the rest around her heart and lungs, but he saw red staining her pajamas and gained tunnel vision for the heartless looming over her fetal form.

Without a single word, he cleaved the monster in two with his keyblade, having to push his anger aside so he could take care of [Name]. She was crying, harsh sobs making her entire body tremble, and held a sliver of light magic in her fist that was slowly burning into the skin of her palm and fingers.

He knelt down to her height, grabbing her hands away from her wound and dispelling the protectga spell. "[Name], I need you to let me see it, okay?"

She lifted them obediently and he took the light from her, setting the light crystal on the bed. He glanced at her anxiously, holding the hem of her shirt in his hand, too nervous to actually lift it without her express permission. Or, worried, she didn't feel like analyzing the expression on his face because she was in too much pain. So she nodded at him, barely able to make the movement.

"I'm going to rip it off before it sticks, okay?" Xehanort told her softly, before tearing it upwards and towards her chest. He sucked in a horrified gasp, trapped it in his lungs, not intending for her to hear it. Bisecting her other scars, the new ones tore right through the scar tissue and layered deeply into her skin, angry, red, and bleeding too much for him to do anything with a cura spell. A curaga spell from his hands would be as painful as pouring acid on her. "I⎯⎯[Name], I'm going to have to use curaga. It's going to hurt you, but it'll be over in a few minutes."

[Name] was taking deep breaths, trying to calm herself and focus on his hands, anything to take her mind off of what she was feeling, and grabbed at the skirts of her bed. "Just do it!"

And when he did, it hurt. Gods, did it hurt; but something new came into it, the feeling of a warm liquid being poured over her skin, and she pried open her eyes to see him holding a giant tube of green liquid. When she caught his gaze, tear streaked as hers was, he explained simply, quietly,"Megalixer."

She closed her eyes again. She still felt the wound was open. "I'm going to need stitches, aren't I?"

"Yes." Xehanort reached over and deposited the now empty vial beside the crystal, eyeing her prone form. "I can do, them, but I'll have to move you to the bathroom."

The thought of moving an inch was painful, but she couldn't lay on the floor while he put a needle and thread in her skin. "Okay. I trust you."

He froze minutely, steely eyes trained on something distant, not there, but he shook himself out of it just as quickly and glanced down at her. "I'm going to pick you up, and if it's too much, we can just do it here."

[Name] wouldn't let him, so she sucked it up and held her breath tightly as he put one arm under her knees and the other behind her back, hoisting her into a bridal hold and walking steadily to the bathroom. Looking up, she caught a glimpse at his face. It was hard, stony, and she could see the rage simmering beneath the surface. He was holding it in well, and she reached up, tugging one of the longer locks of his hair, giving him a wan smile. He didn't smile back, but his face did soften considerably, and it was enough.

After he set her down on the toilet lid, rummaging for the needles and thread he knew were there mostly for his own use, she asked tentatively,"How many?"

He stated at her blankly and she repeated,"How many? Stitches, I mean."

"Sixteen." Xehanort pulled out a plastic, sanitary bag from under the sink, one of the tinier packages with a clean needle and the other with a small spool of surgical thread. "Maybe more."

She cringed against the porcelain lid, watching as he slipped the thread through the eye flawlessly. "I... that's a lot." She swallowed.

Xehanort stopped and eyed her face, setting the needle down cautiously. "You can't faint on me. You've lost a lot of blood and probably hit your head, too, so stay awake."

"I'll try." She vaguely remembered hitting her head on something hard, but not what, and hoped it was her nightstand and not the metal frame of her bed. "Just get it over with."

He nodded slowly, pulling over her trash can and sitting on its lid, balancing it between her legs. When he lifted her shirt again, having her pin it in place under her bra, he assessed the wound as quickly as he could. They were shallower than before, but still deep enough to have potentially a few centimeters of fat between her organs and exposure. It was in an awkward place as well, raking beneath her belly button and up to her old scars. Those were pink with irritation as if those, too, had barely healed past scarring.

"If worse comes to worse, I'll have to burn it shut." [Name] paled even more at that, sweat trickling down her brow, and he added,"But stitches should do, if they hold."

"Are you sure you're qualified to be stitching me up?" She asked jokingly, but he could see the worry in her eyes, so he nodded seriously. Not that she wouldn't be able to see through it; he'd sewn a lot of wounds on himself and Eraqus.

"Completely." He grabbed the needle and thread, then. "You may want to look away."

And look away, she did. Every movement was torture, and he did his best to make sure she retained some mobility, she knew he did, but the pain was making her doubt his skills in stitching. In the hour it took to do so, she'd almost kicked him in the jewels twice and had gotten a hold of his hair at one point. He never raised his voice or even said a word, he would just push the offending limb away, mutter "stop", and get back to work.

Eraqus had started hovering around the door at the half hour mark, not wanting to peek in and see something he didn't want to see or wasn't comfortable seeing, delicately asking on the progress while simultaneously updating them on Mickey's progress to their world, now hurried with the sudden heartless attack. He was expected within the hour, or close to it, and that was all they knew on that.

When Xehanort pulled away, putting the needle into its bag and throwing it away, she felt only relief. "I did the best I could. You'll scar, but around a week or so and I can use curaga so they won't be as... severe. I can't guarantee they won't look horrible for the first few days⎯⎯"

She laughed weakly, interrupting him. "It's fine, Xehanort. I already have scars, so what are a few more?" He had probably already caught on that they were a very sore topic for her, a direct link to self esteem issues.

"I know you don't like them." He bored holes into her head with his stare, then pulled down her shirt. Then, he winced. "You should change, but there's no way you'll be able to..."

She took a long, steadying breath. He was her friend. She could do this. "If you can help me change, I'll do the rest. Just... try not to look, please?"

"You're certain?" He looked uncomfortable now, edging back on the trash can, but it wasn't that he was uncomfortable seeing her as she was. It was a bit different, bringing up feelings he didn't know what to do with just yet. "I won't look, but still..."

"I'm sure." She nodded, reaching over and patting his knee, though that alone exhausted her. "Can I get out of here, first?"

Dressing was a slow process, she'd come to find out. Xehanort would eye the door, as if Eraqus would burst in at any moment, then look at her, then away, squeezing his eyes shut and helping her with straps, sleeves, and the like. She'd just had him help her slip her shirt over her head, arms dangling from the sleeves, when Eraqus actually did barge in.

One glance and he was a mess, albeit a carefully put together mess. "I am so sorry, [Name], I'll just be leaving... now."

Clearly having gotten an eyeful of more than he wanted to see, Xehanort huffed lowly at his friend and shifted to block the view from the door, which was still broken from his entrance, and stared over [Name]'s head.

"I think I'm done." [Name] let the fabric settle down to her legs. "Can you help me...?"

Watching her lift her legs, but not enough to bend the wound, and realizing what she wanted, he grabbed her ankles and carefully moved them to lay on the bed instead of dangling over the side. "Feel any different?"

She sighed sleepily. "Just... tired. Sleepy. A little dizzy, but that's probably from the blood loss."

Xehanort nodded. "I'm going to put some gauze over it, but it'll need to breathe for a while. But you have to stay awake for at least another hour."

[Name] regretted foregoing the bra. The straps were too complicated for her to deal with and she'd eventually just given up and asked for her shirt. He wasn't looking at her, but at the wall, or her pillow, and was keeping a healthy distance away at her feet.

"Okay," she said quietly. "But you have to stay with me, otherwise I'll probably fall asleep."

Xehanort nodded, seeing through the excuse easily. She didn't want to be alone, and he knew it was more than likely difficult for her to broach the subject as she was now. After talking to Eraqus, and eventually organizing a plan for when Mickey arrived, he slipped back into [Name]'s room to find she was sound asleep. A glance at the clock revealed she had waited the hour, and he laid down on the opposite side of her, not wanting her to turn over on her stomach in sleep.

That was the excuse he gave himself, anyways. No one else would know his true reason, not even [Name] herself, even if it killed him.

❥


	5. Valentine's Day Filler!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last year's valentine's day special!

❝ YOU WILL FOREVER  
BE MY ALWAYS. ❞

❤

Valentine's day wasn't something [Name] [Surname] liked to dwell on for too long. After several, horrible dates and relationships gone wrong in the worst way possible, every year she'd been old enough to "court", as her mother had so eloquently put it, she'd just foregone the occasion entirely; ignored the sudden bliss in the air, the aura of love that never did go away until the next morning, and went on like it was a normal day.

That was her plan this year, and it would have continued to be so, but someone, namely her only friend in the entirety of her new world, didn't have the slightest intention to let her sit it out alone.

It was new to her⎯⎯spending Valentine's day with someone who was just a friend. Sure, she spent half of it with her mother before her home world was ruined, but without the obligation of an actual relationship, it was something else entirely, and she just couldn't put a name to it.

So she'd woken up that morning, dread climbing up her throat in the form of a groan, emotions haywire and confused, but ready to tackle the day and whatever love fest that came her way. Not that she had any intention to entertain any of it, but...

Was it really that bad to wish she was with someone with less complicated ties?

Xehanort was difficult to navigate, and after only two years or so of being friends, still proved to be that way. It was like swimming in the open sea, looking for the tiniest island in the hopes of gaining some sort of relief, but only ending up with more ocean, more dangerous predators, and the threat of exhaustion.

Which he... was like a predator, she thought to herself, tugging a shirt over her head. He walked like one, analyzed her like one, sometimes even hovered like one, and had the complete intensity of someone who didn't know how to lose⎯⎯he picked only fights he knew he could win. Theoretically, he could win any argument she threw at him, but for some reason he always let her win, despite the competitive streak he seemed to so often encounter.

But it was fine, [Name] supposed. She hurried down the hall and, glancing at the clock, made a light breakfast for herself since Xehanort wasn't expected until later that day, after his training. He didn't do anything that she wasn't comfortable with, kept a healthy distance between them, and never seemed to get angry. Well, not at her, but she noticed he sometimes bottled everything up and shoved it somewhere no one could see or even notice.

So this day had to be for him, too, and she was happy with that thought, that she could make her friend happy for at least one day before he went back to stony mode.

"Good morning, [Name]!" Fork halfway to her mouth, she turned to see her neighbor, Mrs. Wilkins, standing primly at her front door, looking ever the kind old woman. But she knew better, knew the mischievous little matchmaker making busy within, and frowned as she snatched the arm of someone behind her, yanking him forward. "Sorry for bursting in, but I was wondering if you could possibly spend today with my nephew? I was worried with you spending it all alone, and so⎯⎯"

Staring longingly at her food, [Name] shook her head with a short sigh. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Wilkins, but I already have plans with someone today."

The old lady's face pulled into a frown, but her nephew's brightened considerably. "Is that right? Who is he?"

"Am I interrupting something?" The smooth voice came from the doorway, which was slightly ajar, and all three of them looked at the figure who had spoken. [Name] thanked the gods for his interruption, no matter how early he might have been, and Mrs. Wilkin's looked ready to just plain pop like a balloon.

"No, I was just leaving," the elder woman said stiffly, grabbing her nephew's arm again and dragging him out the door. "Come on, boy."

Gleefully watching through the window as Mrs. Wilkins trudged down the dirt path, her hopes dashed pitifully, [Name] turned back to her 'savior' and gave him a smile full of relief. "I would have never gotten her to leave."

Xehanort raised one slim eyebrow, shutting the door behind him and taking a seat beside her. "Does that happen often?"

"It depends." She took a moment to chew through her forkful of food. "Sometimes she's... determined, other times, not so much. This is the second time she's tried to set me up with her nephew." [Name] gave him an exasperated look. "But I always run her off, in the end."

"Hmm."

[Name] blinked at her food, then glanced at him, and sucked in her cheeks. "Shoot, you aren't hungry, are you? I can make something for you real quick-like⎯⎯"

"Oh, no, I ate on the way." Xehanort caught her gaze, trained suspiciously on his face, and furrowed his eyebrows. "It's fine, [Name]; go ahead and finish eating."

After giving him a doubtful look, she went back to chowing down, almost choking when she caught him observing her, and asked, while chugging several gulps of water to soothe her throat,"Why are you here so early? Not that I'm complaining, but I remember you saying specifically that you'd be here later."

"Training ended early." He shifted uneasily, crossing his arms and leaning against the counter. "I had nothing else to do."

She pushed her plate away, finished with her food. "You're lying; you skipped out, didn't you?"

[Name] didn't see a single emotion cross his face, and she prided him on keeping them so closely in check, but she really wanted to know if he'd really bailed or not just for her. She had to admit that he would make a really good liar.

"If that's what you want to believe." He looked away and she grinned in triumph, hopping off of her stool and putting her plate in the sink.

"Sooo, what do you want to do today?" At his renewed curiosity, she shrugged towards the street. "There's a lot of things to do at the festival until... wait, what do we need to wait for that starts at one in the morning again?"

"My secret." [Name] pouted when he gave her the same nonchalant shrug. "But we can do whatever you want to do until then. That's if you can stay awake that long."

"I'll have you know I'm an excellent night owl," she defended. "You're the one who conks out like a log."

Lips held in a thin line, Xehanort gave her a look, one that said he could have said something as equally criminalizing, but gave the blossoming argument to her, instead. "So you say. Are you alright?"

[Name] frowned at the sudden change of topic, tilting her head, almost like she'd seen him do before. "I feel fine. Why?"

"You're flushed," he stated, maneuvering around the counter and pressing a hand to her forehead before she could blink. "And you have a fever."

Well, she hadn't gone all blushy and embarrassed yet... Raising a hand to her face, she felt her face, but didn't feel much of a difference. "Are you sure?"

"I think I know when someone has a fever, [Name]." Xehanort moved his hand, but he'd started hovering in the middle of it, eyes flickering over her face, worried and anxious. Those emotions she could see as clear as crystal. "Did you eat anything that went bad or spoiled lately?"

"I don't know." Completely flummoxed by the one-eighty, she edged backwards and checked the fridge, if only to get away from the overwhelmingly 'not-quite-friend-like' gaze he was throwing at her. "Maybe..? Or maybe it's just a stomach bug. Or a cavity. Or... nothing at all."

"Nothing. Right." Giving her a critical once over, he hummed to himself. "Fine, then. Do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way?"

"I⎯⎯what?" Her mind went completely into the gutter, before he clarified.

"You need to go back to bed, [Name]. You're turning a bit pale, now; so do you want me to carry you, or will you go yourself?"

And that was how [Name] [Surname] spent her first normal Valentine's Day ever: sick, in bed, and endlessly coddled by the stoniest person she'd ever met.

"This is ridiculous." She watched as he propped his legs up, feeling more miserable by the second but unwilling to show it. Somewhere after the thirty minutes where he'd caught her in a potato sack hold and put her in bed, she'd felt weak and nauseous, fairly put-out. "I can still go outside, you know. There's no reason to ruin Valentine's day for the both of us."

"Not really. I'm with you now, aren't I?" He shrugged, leaning back in his chair. "Besides, I'd rather be here than outside with hundreds of people I don't know in a world I'm barely familiar with."

That was sweet, but... "You don't have any other people you know here?"

Xehanort raised both eyebrows. "No. Just you."

[Name] felt the need to be held and curl up in a fetal position simultaneously, but didn't dare even think about asking him, just pulled her covers tighter around herself. "That's not good. Don't you have other friends?"

"Just one other." When she gave him a look, he amended,"I don't make friends easily, even as a keyblade apprentice."

"That's... sad."

"It depends on how you look at it, I suppose." He glanced at her face, seeing a bit of color leech back in her cheeks. "Feeling any better?"

"A little." That was it. She broke and caved to her sickly heart's pathetic wishes. "Can you do me a favor?"

He moved his legs from their propped position to place his feet on the floor. "Of course. What is it?"

[Name] was proud of herself for saying it with a straight face, but her embarrassment kicked in and made her look away while she did. "Would you mind cuddling with me?"

There was a long silence accompanying the question, and the closer her heart got to dropping into her stomach, the more she regretted her words. He surprised her, though, which he never failed to do.

"Alright." His face was completely composed when she peeked at him through her peripheral vision. "You must feel truly horrible if you have to ask."

What was that supposed to mean? "You aren't afraid of getting sick?"

"Not really. I've already been close to you for a while, so it would be pointless to think about the risk now." He got up from his chair, moving with the grace of a cat, and sat down on the other side of her, one arm held up and aloft. "Come on, then."

Before shyness and embarrassment could take over, [Name] scooted over and took the offered place, almost immediately feeling ten times better with the comfort. Her mother had always held her when she was sick, and it wasn't much different from that, but there was something less friendlike about it and more intimate. She wouldn't let her thoughts go there, however, and quickly made herself comfortable.

"Comfortable yet?" He asked in a wry tone, lowering his arm to rest over her shoulders, palm resting on the sleeve of her shirt rather than the bare skin of her arm. He observed as she situated herself at his side, throwing one arm over him and tucking the other against her chest. An idea striking him, he held out his free hand and cast an esuna spell. "This should help with the other symptoms, but not the fever, I'm afraid."

"That's fine," she said sleepily. The greenish blue orb floated happily above the arm she had thrown over him before sinking beneath her skin. It was ice cold, like most of his healing spells were. "It feels nice."

Xehanort didn't say anything back, opting to glance around her room instead while she wasn't worried about other things. There were several pictures beside the window, some too far away for him to make out clearly, and a large silver chest overflowing with books in one corner. They looked eerily similair to ones he'd seen his other, but not often seen, fellow keyblade wielder, Yen Sid, have on hand. Though, they were different in the regard that the ones he read seemed harmless and these ones were extremely volatile.

"[Name]?"

"Hmm?"

"What are those books in the corner?"

"Those?" She opened one eye sleepily. "Just spell books. Firaza, Thundaza, the like."

Firaza. Thundaza. Blizzaza. Those were extremely high leveled spells, and he glanced down at his friend curiously. But she had already fallen asleep, oblivious to the world around her.

"Another time, then."


	6. Chapter 6

❝ REGARDLESS OF WARNINGS,  
THE FUTURE DOESN'T SCARE ME  
AT ALL. ❞

❥

Somewhere far, far away...

"Master Yen Sid. What brings you here so late into the night?"

"I have discovered something particularly vexing, if you would entertain me for but a moment."

Ansem the Wise stood solid in the frame of his study, casting a curious glance at the large book held captive in his old friend's arms, then at the concerned look on his face. "Of course. Come in, then; would you like some tea?"

"If you don't mind." Yen Sid walked in, glancing around the homely study for only a few seconds, before taking a seat in front of the large desk in the middle of the room, balancing the book precariously in his lap.

When he was freshly plied with tea, Ansem let out a sigh. "It isn't another foretelling of kingdom hearts, is it?"

"Surprisingly, no," Yen Sid answered calmly, putting his tea cup back down. "It is something entirely different; it seems Xehanort got what he wanted, after all."

"Did he?" The blond male shook his head. "And yet we are all here, very much alive."

"This is what confuses me so, of course." Yen Sid smiled. "But allow me to tell you a story."

"What kind of story?"

"One about second chances. What else?"

❥


	7. Chapter 7

❝ I'VE MADE A LOT OF MISTAKES  
IN MY LIFE, BUT IF EVERY SINGLE  
ONE HAD TO HAPPEN TO MAKE SURE  
I WAS RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW,  
TO MEET YOU, THEN I FORGIVE  
MYSELF FOR ALL OF THEM. ❞

❥

When [Name] woke up with killer pains in her side, it was to Xehanort sitting at her side again, holding a giant wad of gauze in one hand and liquid esuna in the other. She asked sleepily,"Whazzit?"

He glanced up at her, eyebrows furrowed, and placed the vial of liquid esuna on the nightstand. She wondered where he got all of it from. "I was hoping you would be asleep for this."

Her sleepy mind making the connection, she sighed and closed her eyes again. "I kind of do too. You don't have a sleeping spell or something?"

"I'm sorry. No." He reached over and delicately rolled her to her uninjured side, eyeing her face for any expressions of pain, and tugged her shirt up enough to expose the sutures. "Hm."

"What'd that 'hm' mean?" Too tired to look down, she poked his arm with the hand closest to him accusingly. "They aren't infected, are they?"

"I caught it in time, so no," Xehanort mumbled, tucking the fabric under her elbow and picking up a small square of gauze soaked with neon green esuna. "Bite something, or hold your breath."

Cringing at the thought of more pain, [Name] snuck the edge of her pillow between her teeth and bit down, giving him a jerky nod when he glanced back up for permission to proceed.

He moved his free hand from her elbow to lay firmly on her ribs, keeping her in place, and started with disinfecting the area around it. She didn't jerk away or squirm, but she did curl her toes uncomfortably when his swipes got too close to the sensitive skin beneath the stitches, and he didn't seem to intend to stop there. "[Name], stop stiffening up, please. You'll tear the stitches open."

She frowned, glancing down at him. How had he known that? As if in answer, he tapped his fingers against the bones of her ribs, waiting for her to relax and let him get back to work.

"Sorry," [Name] mumbled, incoherent over her mouthful of pillow, and gradually relaxed, focusing more on the feel of her mattress than the cold alcohol wipe on her skin.

"It's fine." Once he was done, he picked up the vial of esuna and wad of gauze, depositing the bloody alcohol wipe in a trash can he'd brought in while she was asleep. "This is the painful part, so if you absolutely have to scream, I won't say anything."

"You mean that wasn't the painful part?" She croaked, attempting to worm her way to her back and away from the gauze, but he held firm to her ribs, not painful enough to bruise but with enough force behind it that she couldn't move freely. "I can't use an esuna spell instead?"

"No. The esuna potion is more potent, and I'm not taking any chances with it." Xehanort made a small noise and touched the wound carefully, feeling for fever, and she nearly cried because his fingers were freezing and her skin was close to broiling. "Fever's setting in. We need to be quick, and then I'll give you something for the pain and inflammation after, okay?"

That was probably as close as she was going to get to a peace treaty with him, so she nodded and stopped trying to pull away. "Fine. But you have to tell me how you know so much about this stuff."

"What's there to tell?" He shrugged, taking a tighter grip on her side, and poured the liquid esuna over the stitches in one fell swoop. When she stiffened against it again, like he'd told her not to, it seeped between the stitches and burned like fire. "I learned most of it from books, the other half from being in the field. Eraqus is clumsy, so I have to know how to take care of him... and you, apparently."

The tone he took didn't settle well. It hurt, almost as much as the wound that had set fire in her hip. "I'm sorry that you have to take care of me, too, then."

Xehanort blinked and leaned over to look her dead in the face. "I didn't mean it that way. You know I didn't mean it that way. [Name], you're my friend. I can't not take care of you; my heart won't allow it."

Any concern he'd had before was swept away by an intense, overbearingly powerful stare that begged her to understand, to see where he was coming from. He continued,"I don't want you to get hurt so that I don't have to do this to you. Do you understand?"

"Yeah," she whispered, almost imperceptibly, and no more words were exchanged as he moved back to look at her wound.

Once the gauze was in place, he released her, tossing the empty vial into the trash. She watched as he gradually stiffened up, relaxed, and then found some sort of equilibrium between the two and turning his head towards the door. "Master Mickey's here. I'll go get your medicine, then."

She reached out, wincing when her stitches pulled, and caught his arm as he stood. "Wait."

He glanced down, eyebrow raised, and slowly lowered himself back into the chair. "What is it?"

"You aren't... mad at me, are you?" The [color] haired girl asked softly. "For what I said."

Xehanort looked like he was actually thinking about it, and it stung for a few moments, but he sighed and pulled her blankets over her again. "No, I'm not angry. I'm just irritated that you would take it that way."

She ground her teeth together, pain lancing through her hip, and curled her legs up to ease some of the tension. "What way?"

"Like you're a burden." He gazed at her consideringly, watching the infinite number of expressions flicker over her face before settling into something like confusion. "You may not have said it, but I got the gist of it, and you're not a burden."

"That's not what it sounded like when you said it, though," [Name] grumbled petulantly, removing her hand from his forearm and tucking it beneath the covers.

Xehanort started tapping his fingers against his legs. She recognized it as a nervous tic, something he did when he wanted to do something but couldn't, or wouldn't, allow himself, like when he wanted to summon a cura spell but didn't have enough mana left. "Just... I can't do this."

Flabbergasted, she watched as he stood up and walked out, closing the door behind him. From the gap where the doorknob used to be, she could see him linger, shifting his weight from side to side and then vanish down the hall and away from her sight and hearing.

Laying back down and resting her head on her now damp pillow, [Name] stared at the ceiling and frowned. He certainly wasn't going to use a cura spell, he'd have done that already. There was no way he'd considered punching her in the face, so what had he wanted to do?

"[Name]?" Poking his head tentatively through the door, Mickey hovered anxiously, holding a cup in his hand and something in his other hand. "Can I come in?"

"Mickey! Of course, shut the door behind you." She didn't pay attention to the fact he'd left it open a tad, focusing more on him as he walked to the chair, hopping up onto it and holding out the cup to her. "What's this?"

"Xehanort said it was your anti-inflammatory medicine." Mickey held out two orange pills in his palm and dropped them into her outstretched hand. "He seemed pretty upset, [Name]."

"I don't blame him," she sighed, and then switched the topic. "So, do you think you can help them?"

Mickey plopped down in his seat and watched as she took her medicine in one gulp, a tiny frown on his face. "Of course I can. But their master is not a kind or patient man, [Name]. I've witnessed worlds destroyed in his madness, and I don't want that to befall anyone here. We'd have to lay low for quite a while, but it's possible."

"Mm. Well, you'll have to take me with you." At his questioning look, she shrugged. "There's nothing here for me, Mickey. Xehanort's my only friend, and without him, I'm alone here."

"I suppose." But he didn't seem to agree with it, whatever his reasons were. "I'll let you rest and we'll talk when you're feeling up to it."

"I am up to talking," she protested, but the droop of her eyes and sudden drowsiness said otherwise. "I'm not sleepy at all!"

Eraqus walked in, then, and gave her a small smile and wave of greeting. "Come on, [Name], you're practically falling asleep. You need some rest. Doctor's orders."

And by doctor, he meant... "Fine."

When they left, [Name] pulled the covers up to her chin and tried to get comfortable, falling asleep almost immediately after finding a spot.

Assured she was asleep, Xehanort edged his way through the door, making sure that he didn't wake her up when he took his seat back, this time holding a small charm by the ends of its ties. The star-shaped charm was almost the size of his palm, made of stained glass in gray, gold, and black. Eraqus had one similair but in different colors, and Xehanort twirled it between his fingers thoughtfully.

"Maybe this was mistake," he whispered to himself, placing the glass trinket on her nightstand, by the cup of water. "Guess it's too late now, isn't it?"

He propped his feet up on the edge of her bed, avoiding her knees, and reclined in the chair, staring at the ceiling. "Can't take back something freely given. Hmph."

Xehanort tilted his head forward and looked back over at [Name]. She'd started snoring somewhere in the middle of his thoughts, interrupting the peaceful silence, and was curled up into a tiny ball. He could see from the bulge in the covers that she had her arms wrapped around her stomach. It seemed instinctive, the way she slept in the fetal position. There wasn't usually any other way she slept, except for maybe spread eagle, and he wondered if it was something about her home world. He debated asking Mickey about her past, but knew better and figured he'd rather hear it from her own mouth. Not that she'd want to talk to him after that, though...

Shifting uncomfortably, he found a spot where he wasn't breaking his neck by leaning backwards, and sighed softly. Eraqus' excited whispers echoed down the hall, followed by Mickey's amused laughs, but he had no desire to join them or figure out what mischief his friend was up to now.

[Name] opened her eyes, suddenly, drowsy with sleep, and he jerked his head down to look at her when she reached over, sleepily grabbing his hand in her own and swinging it up and down. "Xehanort?"

"Hmm?" He really didn't trust himself to say something else.

"We're okay, right?"

He gave her the only answer he could. "Why wouldn't we be?"

"Was worried." She retracted her hand back under the blankets, regaining her former position, and yawned. "Don't want you to be... mad."

"I'd never stay mad for long, [Name]." He watched her fall asleep, again, this time starting right off with the snoring, and shook his head, a small smile tugging at his mouth. "Goodnight."

" 'Night. Hey?"

"Hmm?"

"Can you bring me deep fried paopu fruit when I wake up?"

"Whatever you want, [Name]. Whatever you want."

❥


	8. Chapter 8

❝ IT'S HARD TO WAIT AROUND  
FOR SOMETHING YOU KNOW  
MAY NEVER HAPPEN; BUT IT'S  
HARDER TO GIVE UP WHEN YOU  
KNOW IT'S EVERYTHING YOU  
WANT. ❞

❥

"So, when are we going to leave?"

With her back propped up on the arm of the couch, paper bag of deep fried paopu fruit in her lap, [Name] glanced between Mickey, Eraqus, and Xehanort, very deliberately stuffing her face with her delicious treat after asking her question.

"Well..." Mickey made a ponderous noise, clambering from the uncomfortable recliner and pulling out a shiny metal circle that expanded into a three dimensional map of the galaxy. "We're here," he pointed to the world hovering within a green light,"and we need to get here,"he gestured to another one, farther away. "It's a three day journey, but we can make it with a few stops along the way."

"So, what worlds are those?" Eraqus asked, pointing to the few planets that led across the same line towards their destination. There were three, all of them fairly large and appearing unlike the rest of the worlds around them. "They're really close."

"Isn't there a pirate world?" [Name] interrupted, shifting her legs to relieve pressure on her side and offering a piece of paopu fruit to Xehanort, who accepted it without much thought. "I'd like to go to a world with pirates. That would be awesome."

"You say that now, but you'll be regretting it when your wound acts up." Xehanort fixed her with a short, stony glower. "It isn't even close to being healed completely."

Mickey exchanged glances with Eraqus, who shrugged and went back to perusing the worlds along their destination. "We have plenty of time before we go off world, though I would suggest stopping at the Destiny Islands before we go anywhere else."

"Why the Destiny Islands?" Eraqus inquired. "Those are pretty out of the way."

"It's also the closest place to kingdom hearts," Xehanort added, fiddling with the blanket slung over [Name]'s legs and frowning. "Is there something you need to do there?"

Mickey nodded firmly. "Yes. Several potential keyblade wielders have been spotted along the shores, and I was hoping to recruit them before someone else does..."

"Ah." Eraqus hummed, then cast a glance at Xehanort, who looked less than pleased with the idea, and at [Name], who had a peculiar look on her face at the conversation's topics. "Well, I'm not opposed to the idea. It'll be fun to see the islands again."

"Sorry, but," [Name] raised her hand and nudged her friend's hand away from the blanket, exposing her feet with his fidgeting, and asked,"what's kingdom hearts?"

"A culmination of all the light in the world." Mickey said quietly. "Power, in another sense. It's been lost to us for a long time, and for good reason. Wars started over the light, creating darkness within the world... There's more, but that's the shortest version I can tell you."

"Huh." She shrugged, popping another piece of paopu fruit into her mouth and nudging Xehanort with her toes again. "You stopped the numbing thing."

Blinking surprisedly, as if he hadn't realized it, he shifted and put his hand back on her ankle. One of the few things he'd learned from Mickey while she was asleep was how to deaden nerves around wounds with a mixture of white and black magic. [Name], with her magic capability, should have known about that, but other than the basic elements, she knew next to nothing about magic in general. "Sorry."

"Other than the Destiny Islands, I believe we can orchestrate visits to a few other worlds along the way." Mickey said, and explained,"The ship doesn't have infinite supplies, after all. Any suggestions, other than pirates?"

[Name] sulked as her suggestion got denied, and Xehanort put in,"What about Corona?"

"Corona? Why Corona?" Eraqus frowned. "Why not... Arendelle?"

"Or pirates!" She tried to add again, but Xehanort turned to look at her and shook his head in a silent 'no'. "You're no fun."

"What if we draw chances?" Mickey suggested, pulling a hat out of thin air with a whirl of sparkles and blue mist. "That way, we can choose where to go without arguing."

After pieces of paper were torn and passed around, [Name] furiously scribbling "pirates" on all three of her pieces, the others putting down their own choices, they set their paper into the hat and watched as Mickey silently shook it up and mixed the results.

"Alright, Eraqus, you can pick first," Mickey announced, and [Name] grumbled,"What happened to ladies first?"

Reaching into the hat, the dark haired male felt around for a piece of paper that felt lucky, and pulled it out. Unfolding it, he read,"Pirates... [Name]."

"Yes!" The girl in question raised her arms, cringing when Xehanort rescinded a bit of the numbing magic and sent him a foul glare. "That hurt."

"You're next, Xehanort."

Returning her glare, he stuffed his hand in the hat and pulled out the first one he touched. "Arendelle. Eraqus."

"My turn!" Too impatient to wait for Mickey to pass it to her, she grabbed the hat from Xehanort and felt around for her own piece. "The... Toy Box? Mickey."

"I've already chosen the Destiny Islands," Mickey said, poofing the hat away, and [Name] stared down at her empty hands in dismay,"so I can't pick. When [Name]'s well enough, we can go to the Caribbean."

Yawning, she leaned back in victory and handed off her remaining paopu fruit to Xehanort, who stared at the oily bag she'd set in his lap like it was a bug. "I'm full, so you can have the rest."

"I thought I told you not to eat all of it at once?" He shook the bag roughly, narrowing his eyes. "There isn't even six pieces in here."

"Oops?" [Name] smiled widely at him, grimacing when he lifted his hand from her ankle and took his magic with it. "I'm sorry, okay? I wasn't in the mood for food."

"You need to eat healthy to become healthy," Eraqus pointed out, Mickey nodding in agreement. "It'll help a long way to healing the stitches."

Sighing, the [color] haired girl nudged Xehanort and said,"If you're all just going to gang up on me like this, I want to go to my room, where I can horde my junk food in peace."

"There isn't any." At her questioning look, he elaborated,"I cleared it all out while you were sleeping."

"I don't think I want your numbing magic anymore."

A few minutes later, [Name] was safely in her bed, away from nagging keyblade wielders, and was about to settle down for a nap when something on the nightstand caught her eye. Picking it up, she held it up to the artificial light in her room, watching the golds, grays, and blacks refract back onto her face. It was star shaped and had a long black rope dangling from one of the points, made of glass, and fairly light.

"What's this?" She asked Xehanort when he walked in, a new cup of water in hand. "Is it yours?"

"Yes." He took it from her, sitting down and exchanging it for the cup of water and a few inflammation pills. "It's a Wayfinder. No matter where you are in the world, dark or light, it will always lead you back home... or so the legend says."

She smiled, taking a sip of water thoughtfully. "That's cute. But I can't ever go back home."

Xehanort frowned, propping his legs up on the bed. "You do know that keyblade wielders can dispel the darkness from worlds, right?"

"Huh?"

"Given enough time, we could probably take your world back from the darkness." He could see that the information was slowly sinking in and she barely understood what he was saying. "You could go back home and be with your parents again, [Name]."

"Wait⎯⎯how did you?" She cut herself off, sitting upright despite the pain and putting her cup back on the nightstand. "How did you know my world was surrendered to darkness?"

"I'm not daft, [Name]. I put the pieces together." He gestured to the photos across the room. "I know what worlds are light and which ones are dark. It just took time to see, was all."

"Oh." She bit her lip, laying back down, and turned her face away from him to look up at the ceiling. "I... So you know what happened?"

"A little. There are some things only you know and can tell me." Xehanort sighed. "But I can respect that you don't want to tell me about it."

"One day." [Name] rubbed her side, fingers catching over the lumps of skin held together with the stitching. "I'll tell you about it, one day. Just not today."

"That's all I ask."

She laid quietly for a few moments, hesitating with her next words, and caught his gaze seconds before she thought about turning away. Unable to stop herself, she held her arms out invitingly, the other slightly lower to accommodate the newly pulled skin at her side. "I need a hug."

Raising an eyebrow but obliging, he scooted towards the edge of his chair and entertained her request. His voice muffled by her shirt, he asked,"Is there any particular reason why?"

"Um," [Name] rested her chin on his shoulder, staring blankly at the wall for a few moments as his arms came around her upper torso delicately. "You just give good hugs, and I needed one."

He was heartbreakingly silent for a moment and she was glad she couldn't see the look on his face from where she was positioned. "You can talk about it. The Neoshadow, if it bothers you that much."

"How did you know that's what it was?" She didn't make any move to pull away, afraid of what she might look back and see. Would it be pity? Sympathy? Remorse? "I can't be that easy to read."

Xehanort hummed thoughtfully, the sound of it rumbling through her arms and the shoulder positioned over his collarbone. "Not all the time. But when you're vulnerable like this, it's easy for me to read you as you are."

"I don't know what there is to talk about." [Name] said softly, moving to replace her chin with her cheek. "It was there, the spell broke, and it happened. Lady Luck must really hate me, huh?"

"It was my fault." His hug became a little firmer, a little less space conscious. "I should have took my time with the barrier and not rushed off to help Eraqus. It was foolish."

[Name] gently rubbed along his back, attempting to ease some of the stiffness that had accompanied the words that had spilled from his mouth, and sighed. "You can't blame yourself for that, Xehanort. I think we can both agree it was a freak accident and move on; it had nothing to do with your spellcasting skills."

And then, suddenly, she was hyper aware that she wasn't wearing a bra. It'd escaped her notice in the living room, on the couch, because she had a pillow over her chest and a blanket pulled over it to keep from spilling paopu fruit oil all over her mostly clean shirt. But now she remembered it, gooseflesh rising to the surface of her skin, prickling the hair on her arms and neck, and tried pitifully to calm her heart, which was starting to beat erratically with... She couldn't even tell at the moment.

"Hmph, there's nothing you can do to convince me that it wasn't my fault." He was, thankfully, unpleasantly distracted by the rather dark thoughts running rampant through his head, followed by hints of blame, sorrow, and guilt. "That spell should have lasted an hour, [Name]. Instead, it only lasted twenty minutes, leaving you defenseless."

"I⎯⎯" she cut herself off, feeling something warm and wet fall onto her shoulder. He'd kept his tone in control, but apparently not any emotions he was feeling, and pulled back to look at his face. He loosened his hold, but didn't entirely let go. [Name] reached up with one hand and wiped them away with her thumb. "Oh gods, please don't cry, Xehanort. You'll make me cry, too."

The tears kept coming, though, spilling over her fingers as she tried hastily to wipe them away. It seemed the more she tried, the more he wept, and she eventually dropped her hands to rest lightly in the bend of his elbows. "It's okay, just let it all out."

She wrapped both of her arms around his neck, ignoring the painful tug in her side, and buried her nose into his shoulder. He didn't make a peep, not even one, just let the tears fall until eventually, there were none at all. But by then, the entirety of the shoulder on her shirt was soaked, and she needed a fresh one.

"Feel better now?" Patting his back affectionately, she extracted her arms to pull back and examine his face. Carefully wiping the tear stains away, she smiled at him and gave a small tug at his bangs. "I don't think I've ever seen you cry before."

He ignored her last statement. There was an odd look on his face, one she'd never seen before on him, but on her mother once, and she would, far later, come to recognize it as pure adoration. "I don't think I would know what to do without you if I lost you."

It did the trick, sending [Name] spiraling into waterworks of her own, only they were happy tears instead of sad ones. "That was the sweetest thing I've ever heard come out of your mouth!"

Because he cried for her, she cried for him, too, because he didn't have the decency to do it himself.

And for one, singular moment, everything was perfectly fine.

❥


	9. Chapter 9

❝ I KNEW I DID FROM THAT FIRST  
MOMENT WE MET; IT WAS... NOT  
LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT EXACTLY,  
BUT-FAMILIARITY. LIKE: 'OH,  
HELLO, IT'S YOU. IT'S GOING TO  
BE YOU. ❞

❥

Clothes? Check. Knick-knacks? Check. Shoes? One pair was enough, right? [Name] quietly went over her mental checklist, keeping well within grabbing distance of Xehanort in case she started hurting again, rummaging through several of her drawers to find proper clothes that fit the "keyblade-wielding-gang-of-darkness-destroyers" criteria, only coming up with some unnecessarily mundane, normal clothes.

"You do know Mickey can change your clothes to adjust to the world's culture, right?" Sitting broodily at the foot of her bed, Xehanort watched as she carefully picked through tons worth of clothes, flinging them over her shoulder when she couldn't find the right items. "It's really unnecessary to bring anything."

[Name] huffed, whirling around and fixing him with a slightly annoyed glare. "I'd like to have a different set of clothes in case the others get dirty. Or bloody, take your pick. You, Eraqus, and Mickey all wear the same thing every day, and I just can't understand that."

He shrugged, glancing down at his clothes with little to no interest. "I use magic to keep mine clean, but I can't say that for the others."

"Huh." [Name] sighed, tossing the last of her clothes into a travel bag, and plopped down beside him, hand held out demandingly. When he gave her a confused look in reply, she wiggled her fingers, saying,"Numbing time."

He took her hand after her explanation, about to tell her that Mickey would be ready to leave in an hour or so, before having a thought occur to him, something he'd neglected to think about for the past few days. "[Name]?"

"What is it?"

"Do you worry you'll get addicted to the magic?" At her curious look, he shifted uncomfortably and furrowed his eyebrows. "You rely very easily on it. I'm concerned that you'll eventually not know what to do without it."

"Oooh." The [color] haired girl nodded in understanding. "I don't think so. I used to be a mage, before, so I have a high resistance to magical addiction, but... Dunno if it's changed in the past couple of years."

Xehanort frowned as she played with his fingers, distracting both herself and him, but went on,"Now would be a good time to find out, though. Can you cast spells? A simple one would do."

Holding her free hand aloft, where they both could see, she shrugged. "I tried using it before, on the Neoshadow, but it just fizzled out and never came back. Haven't tried since then... Are you⎯⎯what are you doing to my hand?"

Electricity crackled where her fingers met his, dancing over her skin and up the entirety of her arm. He didn't seem worried, only amused, but it didn't go a far way to helping her calm down. "Trying to get a reaction out of your magic pathways. Electricity is usually a good way to do it."

"It tickles." She watched it go from one shoulder to the other, stopping at the hand she was holding in the air, and pool in her palm. It took erratic, rapidly moving shapes, and she only caught the outline of a moogle, a cat, and a flower. "What's it doing now?"

"It's not doing anything. That's you; you're reacting to the stimulus unconsciously." [Name] made a small noise as the yellow magic crackled upward and a flame ignited in her palm. Small though it was, it was a beautiful, shimmering blue, waspy tendrils of smoke wafting up from it in curling spirals towards the roof. "And you're using blue fire. Interesting."

"Was I not supposed to?" She asked, watching the electricity fade and die. Her skin tingled from the loss, so she looked over at Xehanort instead when he didn't answer her question. "Well?"

Eraqus chose to poke his head in the door at that time, then walked in when seeing she was decent, unlike the last time he'd opened a door without knocking. "Sorry, but I heard you talking about blue fire?" At Xehanort's grudging nod, he continued,"Blue fire can mean a bunch of different things, but the most common thing during a reaction test is that the caster and the vessel are close enough that their magic recognizes one another. I recited that from a magic textbook, but to see it first hand is really... different."

[Name] elbowed Xehanort in the side gently, remarking,"We must really be the best of friends for our magic to know each other, huh?"

Frowning, Eraqus made to correct her, but one short glare from his friend had him shutting his mouth. "Oh, anyways, Master Mickey wants to head off-world in an hour or two, so don't forget to bring your stuff."

When the only female in the room got up to grab her bag, extinguishing the blue flame in the process, chattering excitedly about pirates and not waiting for them to walk out with her, Eraqus turned on his friend.

"Why didn't you want me to tell her? It's not like it's something you can control."

Xehanort sighed irritably. "It's not like what you're thinking. I don't want to mess up and accidentally cause her to cast a spell, or become a mindless puppet. There are rules to magic bonds, or did you forget that?"

"No, but⎯⎯I don't like it." Eraqus sighed, turning to the door and Xehanort following behind him. "It's just... a bit dangerous to walk around without knowing about it, okay? She could pull on your magic instead of hers and not think twice about it."

"Rather her than me."

"Right, okay."

They all met up with Mickey in front of a portal that would take them to the ship, where they would then embark to the Destiny Islands. [Name] bounced up and down with less exuberance than he was accustomed to, mindful of her wound at the least, and he walked up to her side, placing a calm hand on her wrist to numb any pain she was feeling and to make her stop jumping.

"Thanks." Giving him a quick smile, she asked,"So, what's on Destiny Islands, anyways? Other than a beach, of course."

"Nothing, except a beach." Xehanort shrugged, mildly irritated by his earlier conversation with Eraqus, and kept his answers short and clipped. "Paopu fruit grow there, and that's about it."

"I was expecting something more elaborate." [Name] poked his shoulder, then, and followed it up with a punch. "Yikes, you're really keyed up; what did Eraqus say to you?"

"Nothing interesting," he lied, keeping his gaze pointed away from her, but she probably already knew he was lying. Surprisingly, she let it go, occupying herself with pulling him forward to the portal as Mickey and Eraqus vanished into it.

"Whoa," was her first word as they exited to the other side of the portal, and if Xehanort wasn't determined to keep his mouth shut, it would have been his, as well.

The ship was large, a glass dome covering the top and several seats lining the side. The pilot's seat was red, the others gold, and outside of the ship was an endless amount of space, stars, rocks, and worlds to explore.

"Welcome to my ship!" Mickey exclaimed, hopping up on the pilot's seat and pushing a few buttons. "It'll be a two hour ride from here to the Destiny Islands, so I hope you brought something to entertain yourselves with."

At that, Eraqus raised his hand. "I brought a chess board."

"Wait, that reminds me!" [Name] elbowed him again and Xehanort silently moved out of range, standing behind her instead. "You have to teach me chess, like you promised!"

"Hmm. That sounds like a good idea, that way we can switch between piloting and playing so no one gets tired." Eraqus nodded, Mickey agreeing from his seat at the helm, but then glanced at [Name]. "You'll have to be taught how to drive the ship, too."

She smiled sheepishly, eyeing the many buttons, levers, switches, and keys on the motherboard, then looked away. "I don't know... too many buttons for my taste. I'd probably crash before I ever got to fly it."

"It's not that difficult." Xehanort gave a tiny shrug. "You could probably learn to fly it within the hour."

"I'm doubtful," [Name] sighed,"but I'll give it a shot."

Needless to say, after thirty minutes or more of flying backwards instead of forwards, shooting lasers instead of accelerating, and slamming on a brake that didn't seem to exist, [Name] was officially on the permanent chess playing list and no one dared to try and change that.

"So, the Queen can move anywhere she wants on the board, right?" At Eraqus' confirming nod, because she was playing him, she silently moved her Queen forward to take his rook. "And a rook can only move forwards or sideways."

"If you can beat me, I'll be impressed," the dark haired keyblade wielder admitted, moving a pawn two places forward. "Not that I've ever won against Xehanort, of course."

They met each other's gaze, gray and dark, not forgetting the one match that Eraqus had managed to win. [Name], however, interrupted by moving her bishop forward and exclaiming,"Checkmate!"

"Well, I guess I'm surprised after all," Eraqus frowned, moving his pawn again so she could take his king. "You play like Xehanort."

"Well..." She shrugged, putting all of her pieces back in place, handing Eraqus his own back. "He did teach me."

"For only sixteen minutes, and yet you have his strategy down pat." He traded spots with the male in question, standing in front of the board and attempting to figure out how this one would go. "This will be interesting."

"Wait, why did I get white this time?" [Name] frowned. "I thought I was black."

"White goes first, and I play black all the time." Xehanort gestured for her to make a move and she did so, reluctantly moving her knight in the designated 'L' shape. He replied by moving his pawn two spaces forward.

"Hmm..." Pawn, two spaces. "Still, I'd rather play as black."

Rook, forward four spaces. "Maybe next time."

"If I lose to you, I swear I'll eat my words." She moved another pawn forward.

Xehanort sighed, taking his knight and moving it to rest behind her pawn. "I think you used that metaphor wrong."

"Potato-Patahto," [Name] grumbled, using her bishop to take his knight. "Semantics."

"No, not semantics." Another knight.

"Wait." She held her hand out, fingers wiggling, and he took it with a small roll of his eyes. When Eraqus glanced at their hands curiously, she said,"Numbing magic."

"Ah."

Moving her Queen forward the two spaces her pawn had moved, she watched Xehanort push his second rook forward. It went back and forth for some time, until [Name], unsure if he let her or not, actually won, half of their pieces already off the board.

"Did you let me win?" She accused, pointing a finger at him as he pulled his hand away from hers to scoop up the playing pieces. "I think you did!"

"I didn't let you win, [Name], you did that all on your own." Xehanort said pointedly, handing her back her pieces. "Besides, if I'd let you win, you would have known."

"But you were going easy on me, weren't you?" Unable to let up just yet, she put her pieces back in order and switched with Eraqus. "Don't lie."

"I can admit that, now." He gave her a nonchalant shrug and a tiny smirk. "But you did win on your own."

"I still don't believe that." Mumbling under her breath, she turned and looked out the large glass dome of the ship beside Mickey, silent in her doubt. "How much longer until we arrive?"

"Oh, about twenty minutes or so." Mickey pressed a few buttons, watching her cross her arms fitfully. "Is something wrong?"

"No?" [Name] rocked back on her toes. "I just... have a bad feeling, is all. Don't know why."

"I'm sure it's nothing!" The mouse tried to reassure her, patting her arm affectionately, and went back to pressing more buttons.

"Yeah," she whispered, glancing back to the chess game that Eraqus and Xehanort were engaging in. "Right. Nothing at all."

Only, she didn't believe that, either.

❥


	10. Chapter 10

❝ I EXIST IN TWO PLACES:  
HERE, AND WHERE YOU ARE. ❞

❥

"If this place wasn't so tiny, I think I'd be impressed with how beautiful it is," [Name] commented idly, sticking her toes in the water, which was unusually warm for the time of year they were in. "But I guess it's the tiny paradises that go unnoticed the most."

The small island was barren of any life or structure, except for a small door that neither of the four of them could pry open, and had small little huts made out of logs for people considerably tinier than them, except perhaps Mickey. The potential keyblade wielders were only children, but if they could get to them before someone else did, it would go a long ways to help keep the darkness at bay, or so Eraqus had theorized.

"Hm." Standing away from the water and toeing the sand, Xehanort took more pleasure in watching [Name] enjoy it than standing in it himself. "How anyone stays in this world for long is a mystery, if they stay at all."

"I think it's quaint," Eraqus chimed, busily building up a sloppy sandcastle that had appeared nice at first, but gradually descended into a giant, wet pile of sand. "You know, good for hermits, home bodies, or people who want to be alone."

"Who in their right mind would want to be alone?" [Name] crouched down, picking up a seashell with colors that matched the Wayfinder Xehanort had shown her perfectly, tucking it into the pocket of her shirt swiftly. "Being with your friends and family is... sacred."

The sun had started to set steadily, marking the sky with streaks of red, orange, lilac purples, blues, and the startling hints of the night sky, clustered with stars of their own color and, beyond that, worlds unknown.

"I guess, but it was just a thought. No need to be so serious, [Name]." Eraqus poked two holes into his sandcastle before standing, moving over to pick up a slate white seashell that had rose with the waves. "The colors on these things are so vibrant; I wonder what makes them like this?"

Frowning, she walked out of the water, moving to stand beside Xehanort and taking his hand silently. Some water had soaked through her shirt and gotten into her wound, the salt a painful burning in her side; luckily, he began emitting the numbing magic automatically, as if it was habit rather than on cue.

"Gotcha, Terra!" A childish giggle.

"Aqua, no fair! You always tag out first!" Another voice, a whine.

"Can't we just say she won and leave already? It's almost dinner time back home." Sulky, far too brooding for a child.

[Name] patted Xehanort on the shoulder, pointing towards the other side of the beach, where three children were running across the sand at a fast pace, each one more outlandish-looking than the last. "Hey, aren't those the potentials we've been looking for?"

Xehanort raised an eyebrow, following her finger to the direction she was aiming at. "So it seems. Eraqus, do you know where Master Mickey went?"

"Um..." As the children came steadily closer, oblivious to the three older people standing close by the shore, Eraqus shrugged. "I think he was still trying to open the door when I left."

"Well, I'll go get him, and you two can... do the bequething of Keyblades, however you do that." [Name] let go of Xehanort's hand and walked towards the small alcove that hid the door, leaving the two keyblade wielders alone to face three rambunctious children.

"Whoa, who are they?" Stopping in his tracks, the chubby, slightly older Terra crowded his two friends into a small semicircle, making himself the shield. "Have you guys seen them before?"

"Dunno," Aqua replied. "I mean, there are a lot of people who come here, too, like Venny from across the street. Maybe they just moved here!"

"I thought his name was Ventus?" Vanitas walked forward, unafraid, and sauntered right towards the two strangers, now lacking the third one. "Come on, we can just ask them who they are."

"But you remember what Mom said about strangers," Aqua whispered conspiratorially. "They might be dangerous."

"It's alright, Aqua!" Terra grabbed her hand and marched forwards, behind Vanitas. "If they do anything, I can protect you!"

Fidgeting nervously and eyeing the area [Name] had disappeared to, Eraqus said quietly,"Don't you think a feminine touch is needed, here? What if they freak out?"

"They won't," Xehanort said confidently. "That little one with the golden eyes seems determined to confront us."

The dark haired keyblader swallowed. "He's kind of terrifying. Can kids be terrifying?"

Xehanort didn't get to answer, instead having his attention pulled to the terrifying tot in question as he yelled,"Who are you?!"

"I think you're supposed to introduce yourself before you ask what my name is," Xehanort said smoothly, Eraqus eyeballing the dark haired child uneasily as his friend crouched to their level. "It's rude."

The brown haired one gasped, suddenly. "Your name is 'Rude'?!"

Eraqus was unable to stop the snort that escaped him. "No, his name is Xehanort, and I'm Eraqus. It's nice to meet you; what are your names?"

"Why should we tell you?" The golden eyed child demanded just as the two behind him answered simultaneously,"I'm Aqua/Terra!"

"And that's Vanitas," Aqua added pleasantly.

"Well, Terra, Aqua, Vanitas," Eraqus said slowly, mimicking Xehanort's pose,"how would you like to see something cool?"

"I don't think so." Vanitas turned and walked away in the vague direction where [Name] had gone off to, waiting for his friends to follow along like the minions they were, but they were too occupied with the shiny new strangers in front of them. "Guys?"

"It can't be any cooler than my dad's sword," Terra boasted. "He can take down giant monsters with it!"

"Yeah!" Aqua pointed her tiny finger into the air. "And my mom's magic can destroy anything!"

Laughing, Eraqus held his hand out and summoned his keyblade. "I think you'll find it cooler than both of those things."

Terra and Aqua stared silently at the weapon in his hand, Vanitas walking back over and commenting snidely,"It's a giant key. What's so cool about a giant key?"

"W-well⎯⎯" Eraqus stuttered, looking towards his friend for help, and his answer was to summon his own keyblade, casting a small illusion spell to shower sparks around it.

"WHOA!" The three chimed, dousing Eraqus' pride in gasoline and setting it aflame, and only managing to make Xehanort a little more smug than usual.

[Name] chose that moment to walk forward, accompanied by Mickey, taking a small glance at the looks of awe on the children's faces. "And who are you three?"

Eraqus smiled, delighted to have a distraction from his wounded pride, and said,"This is Aqua, Terra, and Vanitas. We were showing them our keyblades; don't you think they're cool, too?"

"Ah, sure," she laughed, moving to Xehanort's side. "If you can call giant keys cool..."

Vanitas looked up, golden eyes wide, at the newcomer, and the first words out of his mouth were,"I love you."

"No!" Aqua shoved him, sending him spiraling to the dirt. "You love⎯⎯mmph!"

"Aqua," Terra whined, slapping a hand over her mouth,"you promised not to tell!"

[Name] started laughing, unable to control herself, and fell backwards into the sand, keeping a firm hold on Xehanort's ankle as her side clenched painfully. "Oh my gosh, these children are adorable!"

"Plegh!" Vanitas spit out a mouthful of dirt, moving towards Aqua with only pain in mind. "Terra, you weren't supposed to tell her!"

Backpedaling, the brown headed boy shoved Aqua behind him and smiled sheepishly. "I didn't mean to, she kept asking, and⎯⎯!"

"Okay, okay," [Name] chuckled, climbing back to her feet and moving between the dark haired boy and the two he was ardently pursuing. "That's enough, you three. Can't you forgive each other?"

Eraqus had to look away to keep from laughing, Xehanort dropping his head and pinching his nose to keep the rapid inhales of laughter from escaping into the open, both of them amused as the three children sang,"No!"

"Fine, then," sighing, she gestured towards the two males, telling them silently to get their bequething process over with so she could break up the soon to be fight. "Well, how about I tell you that my friends are heroes?"

"No way," Terra droned. "You don't look like any heroes I've seen!"

"They really are!" [Name] sputtered indignantly. "They fight the monsters in the dark so you don't have to be scared!"

Aqua, bless her, walked forward and asked Eraqus skeptically,"Are you really a hero?"

"Of course we are," Eraqus smiled, patting her head,"but you never see us because we don't want you to. That way, we can be normal, too."

"Guys," Vanitas grouched, ducking uncomfortably when Mickey patted his head and scowling when Eraqus moved to pat Terra's head,"we need to go! Dinner's ready!"

One by one, the children said their farewells, vanishing to the other side of the island, leaving [Name], Eraqus, Xehanort and Mickey standing quietly by the shore.

"Maybe we should camp here," Eraqus suggested. "That way Master Mickey, you can rest, and we don't have to worry about sleeping on shifts towards Arendelle."

"That's a good idea, Eraqus!" Mickey nodded in agreement, turning to the two who had yet to voice their opinions. "What do you guys think?"

[Name] shrugged with a smile. "I've always wanted to sleep under the stars like this. As long as I keep my stitches covered, it should be fine."

"I suppose." Xehanort more or less agreed, moving towards the ship to retrieve tents. "I'll get the tents set up."

"Ooh, I'll find rocks for a fire pit!" Excited, the [color] haired girl walked closer towards a small waterfall to find stones. "Here's a good one..."

"Bug barrier," Eraqus nodded firmly to himself.

"And I'll find a good spot to sleep!"   
The four of them arranged their little camp on a small, separate area of the island that was cut off from the rest and required a ladder to climb or, in this case, an aeroga to be boosted up on. A paopu fruit tree hung lazily to the right, heavy with fruit, and the entire time she was putting the rocks in a circle, [Name] wondered what fresh paopu tasted like.

"Hey, Mickey?" She asked, catching the mouse's attention. Xehanort and Eraqus were setting up three tents, one for her, one for Mickey, and the third for them to share. "Do you think you can knock down one of those for me?"

"Sure!" With one quick aero spell, he'd knocked down probably four more than he needed, handing [Name] the largest of them, remembering her appetite for the deep fried ones. He stored the rest in a magical bag. "Do you know the legend behind them?"

"Uh, no," she hummed, taking a seat on the ground by a newly made fire pit. "Is it like the Wayfinder?"

Mickey laughed. "Not exactly. You see, when shared between two people who love each other dearly, it's said that they'll be together forever. Most people have forgotten about it, after some time."

"That's romantic," [Name] said, breaking off a piece and examining the seeds inside. "I always thought these were seedless."

"Paopu fruit?" Eraqus plopped down across from them, Xehanort taking a seat beside her. The tents were finished, blowing slightly with the wind. "No, most are just prepped beforehand."

"Interesting." She shrugged, looking for the remaining paopu fruit to offer them, but realized they were gone and offered Xehanort a piece of hers instead. "Want some?"

He took it, almost instinctively, and for the next five minutes or so spit seeds into the fire, along with the rest of them, Mickey having dug out the other ones to share with Eraqus. "Too many seeds for my liking."

[Name] closed her hands into fists, cringing when they stuck together with stringy, sticky goop from the fruit. Romantic in legend, but quite gross in reality. "Yeah, and really sticky too; who wants to boost me down so I can rinse them off?"

Since Eraqus and Mickey were in a heated discussion about alternate realities, that left only Xehanort, who was quietly contemplating something, and she nudged his shoulder with her elbow. "Come on, I need to wash this off before it dries."

Floating in an aero spell was almost like flying, if you forgot the gut wrenching terror when it launched you high enough to clear the small islet entirely, and it was almost entirely the same going down, [Name] landing roughly on her feet and sitting ankle deep in sand. "Ooh, that's cold!"

"The water's probably colder," Xehanort said, moving towards the small pool where the waterfall collected. "I don't want to risk the tides, as low as they are."

"Ripcurrents, right?" At his answering nod, [Name] followed after him quietly, sticking her hands in the water and hissing. "Cold, cold, cold..."

One fira spell later and they had the perfect conditions for a sauna, steam boiling up in her face and making her face flush with blood. "Better, but a bit too hot." Her hands were clean, though, and she wiped them against her shirt. Xehanort just dried his with water magic, unable to stop her in time to do the same for her.

"Wait," he said, pulling her to a rough stop. They were somewhat below the small islet, now, out of view of Mickey and Eraqus but close enough that they could hear their talking. "Let me see your stitches."

"Can you even see?" She sighed, but tugged her shirt up anyways, watching as he cast a simple light spell and looked it over, occasionally touching some of the ties. "How does it... look?"

"Better, but really irritated," Xehanort mumbled, casting a curaga and esuna spell before she could blink, removing whatever he'd seen from it in seconds. "There. Are you going to be able to sleep like this?"

Giving him a watery smile, she tugged down her shirt, shrugging. "Probably. It's not my bed, but it'll do."

"I meant without the numbing magic." He stared into her eyes, looking for something, and seemed to find it. "Maybe not."

"It'll be fine." [Name] edged away, uncomfortable with the intensity of his stare, and said,"Let's get up there before they worry."

Instead of listening to her suggestion, he grabbed her upper arm, tugging her backwards gently to face him again. Her face turned over a thousand shades of red at their proximity, closer than she'd ever dared to hug him, and at the sudden lack of personal space. "They're not going to worry, they're in the middle of talking about theories."

"But..."

"[Name], I want you to promise me something." He didn't wait for her to answer, plowing on,"If you're in any type of pain, at any time of the night, wake me up, okay?"

"I can't wake you up like that!" She gasped in outrage, poking a finger in his chest. "It's rude and inconsiderate."

"It's not if I'm telling you it's okay," Xehanort said softly, reaching up and tugging her hair affectionately, like she had done many times before. "Are we clear?"

"Fine, fine," she sighed, lowering her hand and pulling away carefully. The loss of warmth felt like tiny little pinpricks of ice had spread across her skin. "I promise."

"Mm. Go up without me, I'll follow in a few minutes."

She frowned. "Alright. I'll see you in the morning."

The moment her feet touched the sand, Xehanort walked off towards the area where they'd watched Aqua, Terra, and Vanitas run off to, catching a glimpse of lights and houses on the horizon, a small spec in the miles of ocean around them.

"This world is just too small."

❥


	11. Chapter 11

❝ NOT QUITE A SPARK,  
BUT NOT QUITE A FIRE,  
EITHER: JUST... POTENTIAL. ❞

❥

"Move over."

Opening her eyes blearily, [Name] barely registered Xehanort zipping her tent flap back up before she was shrouded in darkness once more, the fire light outside having dimmed considerably from lack of attention.

"I thought you were sharing with Eraqus," she mumbled sleepily, but made room for him nonetheless on her pallet of blankets, sleeping bag, and pillows that she had stuffed into Mickey's magic pouch before she'd packed her clothes. "You know, privacy and... stuff."

"I forgot that Eraqus likes to snore." He slid under the blankets and additional sleeping bag, then asked,"What side are you sleeping on?"

[Name] yawned. "Mm... the uninjured one."

With a snap of his fingers, a light spell came into being, and she obediently pulled up her shirt, wanting to scratch at the irritated stitches. She'd probably rolled over on it once or twice, felt the pain, and rolled back over to sleep through it before it got worse.

When his fingers touched the skin around it, she froze, wide awake. "Good gods, your fingers are cold!"

"Shh, be quiet." He moved her shirt back into place, snapping his fingers again so the light would go out. "Don't scratch it. It's scabbing over well."

"Does that mean I can go to the pirate world, now?" Rolling over onto her back, she flinched when her leg hit his toes. His very cold, very frozen toes. "What did you sleep on, a block of ice? You're freezing!"

Xehanort rolled over to face her, bringing a giant mound of blankets with him, bundled up like butterfly in a cocoon. "He also likes to steal the blankets. That was another reason."

[Name] reached up and scratched her nose, wriggling closer and managing to find both of his hands without touching anything else. "You know, if you just wanted to check up or something, you don't have to make excuses for it."

"Noted." His head disappeared into the blanket burrito he'd made, voice muffled when he spoke. "Now go to sleep so we can head out early."

"Aye aye, cap'n."

———————ღ———————

"Stop scratching at it."

"It itches!"

"If you don't stop scratching, I won't numb you anymore when you rip them open with your fingernails."

"I'll give you an open wound and see how you like the itching," [Name] grumbled, yanking open the flap of her tent and being greeted with the sea breeze blowing right in her face. "Wow, it's hot."

Eraqus poked his head out of his own tent, looking around blearily, and cringed. "The humidity is terrible, too."

Mickey was already up and about, working busily over their fire pit that was shooting green, blue, and red sparks, and turned dark pink, singing an unfamiliar tune and waving his hands about. "Good morning! I was just enchanting our compasses for today, in case we lose each other in Arendelle. It's well known that magic doesn't work like we want it to in some cases, so I want to be prepared for the worst."

"Wait..." [Name] stepped out, Xehanort following behind her, hair spikier than usual, and skirted around the fire uneasily. "You mean to tell me we could get separated upon arrival? With no way of knowing where we are or what to do?"

"Sometimes," Mickey admitted guiltily. "Magic is fickle when it comes to world travel. To maintain order, we may have to travel alone, and sometimes together; my last trip to Agrabah ended up with me in the desert and my two friends playing royalty with the Sultan."

[Name] shook her head, making a beeline for the packs of food they had set out the other night. "It's too early for this magical nonsense. I don't even know what Agrabah is... or... where it is?"

"Don't worry," Eraqus yawned, pulling his arms over his head and looking towards Xehanort. "It'll be fine. Do you want to get some training in before we go?"

"Mm. There will no doubt be heartless in most of these worlds," Xehanort agreed. "[Name], you should practice your magic, just in case we do get separated."

"Alright." She nodded, shoving a piece of jerky into her mouth without much thought. "But I'm going to need a nap before that."

"You just woke up, though," Eraqus pointed out. "Aren't you awake?"

"I could sleep for an hour or two more." [Name] shrugged, turning and walking back to her tent. The sky was still in the early stages of dawn, and yet it was already humid, making for unfavorable sleeping conditions. "Eh... I'll just sleep on top of the covers."

As the [color] haired girl zipped the flap behind her, Xehanort and Eraqus leaped down from the small islet and found a nice, open spot to practice with their weapons and magic without worrying too much about hitting anything out of the way.

"So..." Eraqus began as he dragged his keyblade to make lines in the sand for their ring. "Why did you leave the tent and go to [Name]'s?"

"You snore." Xehanort didn't look up from his work, busily drawing his own lines in the sand. "And you stole all of the blankets. [Name] doesn't snore, isn't a cover hog, and rolled over on her stitches last night."

"I didn't know I snored," he hummed thoughtfully, finishing his little square off and standing in the middle of it. Compared to the other male's, his was a little more rectangular than square, but it would do for a practice session. "Her stitches look okay, though?"

"They're healing well enough." He slashed a line through the middle and took a fighting stance. "If she'd stop scratching at it, it would have already healed over."

Eraqus laughed, mimicking his pose and planting his feet in the dirt. "Used a lot of curaga spells while she wasn't looking, didn't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Xehanort said smoothly, making the first move and bringing his keyblade down over his friend's. "Magic?"

"Magic," he agreed, pushing the keyblade away and casting a lightning spell to distract him. As his friend came up and blocked, he moved behind him, but got hit with a protect spell in the process. "Ouch, you really were serious about the whole reflex thing, weren't you?"

"Aren't I always?" Xehanort whirled around and met him mid-swing, casting two Graviga spells at his feet to hold him there. "Besides. Being serious is how I win."

"Eh, you've got me there," Eraqus laughed, neutralizing the gravity spell and leaping away from his friend's range. "Have you learned how to cast Firaza yet?"

"No. But [Name] has books on the spells with her," the silver haired male switched grips, placing his keyblade backwards in his palm and holding it up like a dagger. "I figured I'd read one of those and see how it went."

"What's [Name] doing with a spell book full of high level magic like that?" Eraqus wondered, grunting and sliding back a few feet when their Keyblades met harshly. "I know she's a mage, but that's a lot of firepower for one person."

"I don't know." Xehanort leaped back and charged up a Blizzara spell. "I don't ask and she doesn't tell."

"Weird." Dodging the blast of ice, he held up two fingers for a time out, wanting to talk more than train at this point, but also to catch his breath in the heat. "You're best friends, but you know next to nothing about each other. Isn't that... not how friends work?"

Xehanort shrugged, shoving his keyblade in the dirt and propping his arm on it. "Her magic is linked to her home world. She doesn't like to talk about it much, so I don't push her about it. It's more for her than for me."

Eraqus was going to ask what world she was from, but was quickly interrupted by a loud bang, the crackle of thunder, a screamed "Oops!" and an usually mad cackle, all from the same person.

"Thundaza, right?" Xehanort observed the five streaks of light in the sky, tilting his head. "Huh."

While the two males went back to their training, [Name] was laughing at the trajectory of her magic along with Mickey, who seemed slightly terrified and worried as she blasted her way through magically summoned barrels without much of a problem.

"It's been years since I've wielded my magic like this," she chuckled. "I always thought I'd have to start out with the basics if I ever wanted to try again."

Mickey laughed lightly, jumping when a stray bolt of lightning got too close to them for comfort. "Well, that's not exactly true; it's like muscle memory, but the magical version. Your magic knows what to do and your mind knows what it wants to target, or so my friend Donald says."

"I didn't know that." [Name] paused, switching to Blizzaza, and made a more controlled space with the small range magic. "But I wasn't a fan of much except attacking."

"So that's Thundaza, Blizzaza... What other spells can you cast?" Mickey asked curiously.

"Firaza, Waterza, Lightza, Curaza, Stopza, Graviga... Um, I think that's it." She shrugged, moving on to Firaza. "I haven't used more than a cura in a while, though. My magic's dropping pretty quickly, too."

"Be careful," Mickey warned. "Magic exhaustion is worse than a physical wound. You would be down and out for more than a week if you overdid yourself, not minding the soul scarring that could occur."

"Yeah." [Name] lowered her hands. "Maybe I should call it quits for today. As long as I can summon Firaza or Thundaza, I'll be okay, right?"

Mickey nodded, handing her a thermast filled with water, and then two more for Eraqus and Xehanort. "Of course, just take it easy for a while. Do you mind giving these to Eraqus and Xehanort? They're probably dying in this heat."

"Sure!" Taking the three metal cylinders, she turned on her heel and started trekking to the other side of the island, occasionally observing the critters that would wash up on the beach before going on her way. "Okay, where are⎯⎯whoa."

They were moving faster than the eye could see, casting magic, throwing keyblades, teleporting, throwing ice bombs at each other that just seemed to be for the heat, and knocking their weapons out of each other's hands before resuming their paces.

"Hey! Time out!" [Name] held their thermasts out in a 'T' shape. "Cease fire!I come bearing gifts!"

"Ooh, water," Eraqus chirped. "Why didn't we think of bringing them with us?"

"I didn't know it would be this hot," Xehanort admitted honestly, taking one of the thermasts from [Name] and chugging it. "Thanks."

"It was Mickey's idea." She shrugged, handing Eraqus his and pulling hers out from under her arm. "I would rather be blasting away at barrels, but I was going to hit magic exhaustion soon, so I quit."

Eraqus snickered at something. "That was you laughing like a mad hyena, wasn't it? I swore I heard,'Nyeahahah,' between bla⎯⎯ouch!"

Electricity crackling between her fingers, Xehanort glancing between her hand and his friend's smoking shoulder, [Name] frowned and said menacingly,"Call me a mad hyena again and I won't hesitate to use Thundaza."

When Eraqus shot his gray-eyed friend a wounded look, Xehanort shook his head very sadly, very seriously, playing along. "Sorry, but I think she means it."

"I do mean it!" She bit out, temper flaring, and she reached out to pinch him, but her fingers slid off his arm as easily as water. "Oh, you're really sweaty. I bet you smell, too."

"Burn him to a crisp and let's find out," Eraqus suggested brightly, eager for revenge on his friend, and laughed quietly. "Anyways, thanks for the water, but does anyone know when we're heading off?"

"Soon, hopefully." [Name] plopped down on the sand, then cringed, grabbing for Xehanort's ankle. "I don't like the heat as much as I thought I did."

"But it's freezing cold at night," Xehanort noted. "I almost forgot it was supposed to be a tropical island."

"I guess I got cold." Eraqus smiled sheepishly when the other keyblade wielder glared daggers at him. "Well, was cold."

"Isn't Arendelle cold?" She waved her fingers. "It is winter time there, after all. I asked Mickey about it."

"Lots and lots of snow," Xehanort said sourly, crossing his arms and tucking his thermast under his elbow. "The only entertaining thing there is ice skating."

[Name] gasped in mock outrage. "Xehanort, the High and mighty, going ice skating of his own free will?!"

"He was good at it, too." Eraqus squinted. "Almost like a little ballerina on ice."

"It was a fluke."

"That's it," she huffed, getting to her feet and using Xehanort as a prop. "The first thing we're doing is going ice skating. I don't care if I die after that, I must see your skating skills so I can go to heaven peacefully."

"Right." Snorting, her friend moved out from under her arm and almost let her face plant into the dirt. "Let's go before you give her any more ideas, Eraqus."

[Name] laughed, jogging along behind them but painfully aware of the itching going on in her hip. "My ideas are good! You just can't appreciate them!"

"Appreciate them, yes. But are they good?" Eraqus shrugged playfully. "Not so much."

"You wound me!" She clutched her chest, looping her free arm through Xehanort's. "Xehanort, you have to defend my honor against this... this ruffian!"

"As long as I don't have to ice skate."

"Fine, I'll leave this island without a smidge of honor because darnit, I'm seeing you ice skate and that's final."

As she walked off, feigning anger, Eraqus hummed thoughtfully. "Why does that sound like someone we know?"

"I don't think we know anyone like that."

"But we know [Name]?"

"Regretfully."

"You don't regret knowing her at all, do you?"

"Not at all."

"Good to know."

❥


	12. Chapter 12

❝ THE NIGHT BECKONS  
WHILE YOU DREAM. ❞

❥

"It's kind of sad to be leaving so early." [Name] picked through her bag's contents quietly, looking for a specific kind of shirt that wouldn't touch her stitches. She glanced up, watching Eraqus and Xehanort check the fuel tanks like Mickey had taught them, and then at her bag. "Um, I think I left something at the camp ground."

"Really?" Eraqus frowned. "I'm sure it was spotless when we left."

"Well, my seashell is missing, and I'm not leaving without my souvenier." She patted the pocket at her chest, seeing if it was still there, but only felt empty cloth. "It'll only take a minute."

"I'd hurry," Xehanort suggested, screwing one of the caps back on and locking it with an audible hiss. "We're lifting off in a couple of minutes."

[Name] brushed off her skirt and started walking back towards the small islet, which was unusually well out of view of the ship, and called,"I'll be back in a jiffy!"

She didn't recall ever taking the shell out of her pocket, but since she had been training and moving around a lot more than usual, it wasn't too far off to say she had maybe lost it while she was sleeping or flying on one of the many aero spells it took to get up there.

Casting a small spell so she didn't completely clear the islet like the ones Eraqus cast, she found the seashell sitting on its lonesome in the middle of it. It probably fell as they were leaving. "There it is. Now I can get back to the... ship..."

Almost immediately, her ears began to ring, a tinny sound that blocked out the sea crashing against the shore, the birds flying overhead, and the sudden crash of thunder that shook the ground beneath her feet. In fact, it only felt like a muted shake, and as she tucked the shell into her pocket and turned back around, anxiety and dread making her gut flip-flop, there was someone standing behind her.

"Wha⎯⎯?" Taking a few steps back, [Name] tried to pull on her magic, failing when it refused to come to her aid and hid away somewhere she couldn't find it. "Who are you?"

Hunched and clothed in nothing but a brown, drooping coat that gave no facial features away, the figure lingered an blocked the only way off of the small islet. She didn't want to risk jumping into the sea, and taking another step backwards, she repeated her question, though her voice started to tremble as she said it. "Who are you? What do you want?"

Mingling with her dread was an uncanny sense of familiarity. In the same way you could place faces but not names, she felt familiar with the presence but not the form, her heart pounding painfully in her chest until the ringing in her ears subsided with a vague popping sound.

The figure in brown walked forward, and then vanished into a flash of bright light. Sitting in its place, hovering delicately a foot or so off of the ground, was a bright white orb offset with dark purple and black around the edges. [Name] recognized a heart when she saw one, though, and this one was horrifically damaged.

Toeing the sand nervously, she walked forward. A heart couldn't hurt her, right? Especially one so broken and damaged, it looked close to succumbing to the darkness. And if it did, it would eventually become a heartless. She didn't wish that fate on anyone. So she moved a little closer, until she was standing in front of it, and felt a stab of pity for it.

In multiple places, there were pieces that were broken off, as if the light refracting from the center stopped at a certain point, each gap haphazard and deep, almost completely obliterating one side and pin-holing the other. If she had to give it a reason, it sounded like a broken heart, with all of the spiderwebbed cracks, dark taint, and subdued light.

"I wonder who you are." [Name] brought it closer to her face, examining it from all sides, but came up with nothing on why it felt so familiar to her. "Maybe I knew you from somewhere, but I don't know anyone who's heart's been hurt so badly as yours."

The light brightened considerably, but dimmed just as quickly, almost falling limp in her hands. "Oh. You can't survive like this for long, can you? Well..."

If she remembered her magic mumbo-jumbo correctly, you could save a heart by hosting it with your own⎯⎯you risked for getting some of your own identity as your memory melded with theirs, bleeding into real life, but she felt so bad for the broken heart that it didn't really matter what the books said.

"I guess," she began, taking a long breath,"you can stay with me, if you want. I can't promise you can stay forever, but until you heal, you can stay... okay?"

[Name] could hear Xehanort and Eraqus calling for her faintly, but by the time she looked back to the heart, it was already finished sinking into her chest, and it was painful. Flashes of memories crossed through her mind for only a moment, but she caught an image that would stick in her mind forever.

It was Aqua⎯⎯but she was older. Far, far older, sitting on a shore of black sand that never seemed to end, water rippling near her feet. Tears were rolling down her face, and for that moment, [Name] felt confused, but like a dream that faded the moment you woke up, she forgot it instantly.

Shaking her head, she let herself back down and boarded the ship with a tiny frown on her face. It didn't make any sense; why would a heart come to Destiny Islands, risking exposure like that? She didn't know much about them, herself, but she knew that they generally didn't live in a form like that. But maybe... "Hey, Eraqus?"

"Hmm?" He glanced up from the chess board as Xehanort made his move, Mickey moving past them to start up the ship and get ready to head to Arendelle. "What is it?"

"Theoretically, do you think hearts could travel through time?" She asked curiously. "Like, to be at a certain place at a certain time to see something happen."

Xehanort looked up then, eyes narrowed. "Theoretically, you could, if you left your body behind to do it. As per the laws of time, you must have a version of you waiting there for your arrival. If not, and something went wrong, you risk destroying your heart."

"Hmm." [Name] took a seat in one of the empty chairs, fiddling with her seashell thoughtfully. "That would be useful; if you didn't like something that happened, you could always travel back and prevent it."

Her friend shook his head, sending Eraqus a foul look when he took his pawn. "That's not how it works. You can't change anything that is destined to happen. You can only move forward, as the law of time permits it. You can't do much else, otherwise."

"So if you can't change the past or the future, then can't you rewrite fate?" She suggested. The ship slowly started to lift off, shaking imperceptibly. "Fate isn't set in stone. Maybe destiny is, but you can always rewrite fate, can't you?"

Eraqus sighed,"Did you become a theorist overnight? I don't think the Destiny Islands did you much good."

"What's that supposed to mean?" [Name] frowned. "It did me plenty good."

"I believe he meant the question was unexpected," Xehanort said curtly, and he wasn't looking at the chess board anymore, but at her, with a considering look that suggested he was thinking about something. "Say you could change fate. Whatever you changed, whatever went wrong that you didn't like, would come back in another way, like karma. Say someone died. If you want to change that fate, you would go back, change something that happened, and return, but the consequences of that action would be focused on you instead. Perhaps not death, but something as equally as permanent."

"But isn't death as permanent as it gets?" Eraqus made another move, a significant frown in his voice. "Other than becoming a heartless, of course."

"Something like death would be being forsaken to the Dark Lands." Xehanort moved his Queen forward, taking Eraqus' Queen in one fell swoop. "You can't get out of it, not after you've walked the waters of darkness."

"I forgot all about the Dark Lands," Eraqus hummed, looking back over at [Name], but she'd already fallen asleep, chin propped in her hand uncomfortably. "All that magic practice must have really worn her out."

Xehanort leaned back, looking over to his other friend, eyebrows furrowed as he felt another presence, one significantly less prominent, but rooted deeply within her heart nonetheless. It seemed harmless, but he wondered how she had gotten ahold of the thing in the first place, considering she was only gone for a few minutes. "I suppose. Your turn."

While they played their game and Mickey piloted the craft on a course for Arendelle, [Name] was dreaming⎯⎯but it wasn't the kind of dream she would have picked for herself to have.

She was in an unfamiliar room, all of the décor, furniture, walls and lights having been painted a bright white that seemed to suck the shadows out of the room and cast them away. In the room with her, sitting at a table and conversing quietly over what seemed to be tea, were two men, both of them bizarrely dressed and older than she was.

"It seems our guest is here, Yen Sid," the younger of the two announced, looking pointedly in her direction. "Come, sit. We have plenty to go around."

"No, thank you." [Name] frowned, turning on her heel to look for a door, but only found more white walls to block her way. "I want to wake up now."

"Of course," Yen Sid said. "But we would like to ask you a question before you go."

"Fine. Ask your question." She turned back around, panic starting to seep into her chest. It didn't feel like a dream. The air was too crisp, the wind in her lungs too real, the voices in her ears far too realistic to be anything but real.

"Mm." The blond man pointed in the general direction of her heart, one eyebrow raised curiously. "Do you know that the passenger residing in your heart... is from a world almost exactly like yours?"

And before she could think on what those words meant, she was waking up, with steel gray eyes boring holes into her face that seemed to be suddenly unfamiliar for a moment. "[Name]? You were having a nightmare."

Rubbing her eyes, she sat up straight and automatically winced when her side complained with the movement, flaring up and ready to be scratched. "It didn't feel like a nightmare... I'm fine. You can go back to your game."

"Are you sure?" Xehanort frowned, Eraqus peering over and looking as equally concerned. "Your nose is bleeding."

"H-huh?" Bringing tentative fingers up to her nose, she wiped at the skin and brought it back to look at them. The red liquid was bright and fresh, suggesting it had just started pouring, and almost immediately after a wad of napkins was shoved in her face, courtesy of a worried, looming Mickey, who she hadn't seen in the other seat. "I guess it is. None of you punched me in the nose while I was asleep, did you?"

Xehanort didn't appreciate her attempt at a joke. "Maybe you should lay down. There's a cot in the back of the ship that you can use."

Groaning, [Name] threw her head back to rest against the seat, bringing the tissues back up when she tasted blood in her mouth. "I don't want to sleep anymore. I'll be fine, okay? Just throw a curaga spell at it and it'll be fine."

When he didn't show any signs of doing it, she did it herself, feeling the blood flow gradually slow down and dry up. But now she was a bloody mess, and had nothing to wipe it off with, so she got up and looked for a water bottle and a shirt she wouldn't be using for the trip, wetting it and using the metal inside the ship as a mirror to see the stains on her face.

As she worked, her mind went back to the words of the two men. At first, it didn't seem possible that a heart could travel through dimensions. It was impossible to fathom; but a heart shaped moon existed, heartless existed, light and dark existed... It didn't seem so difficult to face now, but she had to wonder what had caused a heart as broken as the one she carried to travel literal dimensions to find a host.

There was a quick flash of blue eyes, a wide smile, and a very ordinary looking keyblade, followed by by glimpse of a world that looked eerily like the Dark Lands that Xehanort had described earlier. The black sand was in place, the water as if should have been... But they weren't her memories. So were they the heart's?

"Ah!" Mickey leaped up, pointing outside the window. "Heartless!"

Moving towards the glass dome, [Name] looked up, following the mouse's finger to see a large black mass floating some distance away, but with the size it was at, she could have seen it from miles away. "It's huge! How do you get a heartless that large?"

"I don't know," Eraqus said, face grim as they all watched the giant beast free float towards a small circle in the distance, lit up as brightly as the Destiny Islands had been. "But it's headed for Arendelle."

❥


	13. Memories: Filler

❝ DON'T THINK TWICE. ❞

❥

The small town of Coronatus Lux⎯⎯translated as "Crown of Light" in Latin that no one seemed to acknowledge as a language⎯⎯was an unfortunate, non-existent blip on the edge of Scala Ad Caelum's borders, prone to the occasional heartless attack, horrible wet and rainy summers, and was home to an unhealthy snack called mooglios; a giant bag of multicolored chips cut into the shape of moogles that tasted like fruit, and never seemed to make it past the village.

For the past week or so, [Name] [Surname] had been calling this place home, and had absolutely no idea how she was going to make a life for herself in it. There were few vendors that sold anything but meat, vegetables, or the mooglios, most of which had spoiled by the time she pulled up enough courage to head out and confront other people.

"Stay low on the radar for a while, [Name], and you'll do just fine!" She mocked Mickey's last words to her, picking up a small bag of mooglios and checking the price on the back. 90 Munny. Not bad. She paid the clerk for it, adding a paopu fruit soda in it, and walked towards the general direction of Scala Ad Caelum. "Well, I can't get anything fun in this place without going on the radar a bit, Mickey."

Scala Ad Caelum wasn't difficult to see in the slightest. With the towers close to touching the sky and the general white theme it had going on, [Name] could easily pick out where she wanted to go over the large trees in her way. They were similair to the ones from her home world, tall and vaguely fluffy, sporting flowers or leafy vines that never did seem to serve a good purpose except for compete for sunlight.

Finding the dirt path that led to the tram was easy enough. Someone had laid pearly stones into the ground, acting as a guide way so no one would get off course, and cute flowers had sprouted up along the edges, all of them red and yellow... or what seemed like flowers at the time, before they sprouted eyes and grew two feet, toddling towards her as menacingly as a flower monster only could.

"Not happening!" Almost as quickly as they'd ambushed her, [Name] clambered up the nearest tree, finding foot holds where there were none and scampered up the tree in record time, her mooglios crunching in the bag with the death grip she had over them. "I am not dying by heartless today, world! You'll have to get me some other way, because⎯⎯I squished my mooglios. Great."

[Name] cursed herself for letting her magic go out of practice. She hadn't been able to summon magic since she was forced to leave her home world and come to Coronatus Lux; she'd tried almost everything, but the more difficult solution brought dark spells into the equation and she didn't want to dabble in anything related to the darkness. But now, it sounded like an increasingly good idea as the heartless got closer to her tree, seemingly charging up for something.

And then, they were gone, vanishing in a cloud of purple smoke. Several crystal pink hearts floated up towards the sky, and she watched, dumbfounded, as a boy came into view, toting something similair to the weapon Mickey wielded when he had saved her.

"Are you hurt?" The stranger asked. He was looking up at her with one eyebrow raised, as if he was internally mocking her for fleeing up a tree, and [Name] was struck with the oddest thought that she'd never seen gray eyes on a human before unless they were blind.

"No," she said, moving to slip down from her limb and drop to the forest floor. "I just think my pride got a little bruised, that's all."

Before she could hit the dirt and probably break her ankle, a burst of wind caught her in the middle, allowing her to float carefully to the forest floor without risking a major injury. She recognized it as magic, but the caster's signature was unfamiliar to her; Mickey's signature was vaguely warm and comforting, and this person's was as cool and calming as a raging sea in the middle of a storm.

"Thanks," [Name] chirped and straightened her pants, thanking the gods she decided to wear them that morning instead of a skirt or something as equally flashy. "For helping me down and saving me, I mean."

"You're welcome." He was squinting at her now, as if he didn't know what to make of her, then shrugged to himself. "Were you heading to Scala Ad Caelum?"

She glanced at his hair, which vaguely resembled the tush of a duck, pursing her lips. It wasn't... odd, per se; she knew someone with a similair hairstyle, if he wasn't dead on her homeworld, and a woman with the same hair color, so she chalked it up to wonky genetics and left it at that. "Mhm. I got sidetracked, as you can see. I'm [Name]. I just moved here."

"Up a tree, nonetheless." The male shook his head, crossing his arms. "I'm Xehanort. Why were you going down this path without a guard detail?"

[Name] frowned, popping open her bag of mooglios and taking a handful to put in her mouth. "Um, was I supposed to have one? No one in the village told me anything about that."

Xehanort sighed harshly through his nose, turning on his heel and walking down the path. "Come on. I'll take you."

She jogged to keep up, one of his strides matching at least three of her own, asking,"Are you sure? I wouldn't want to inconvenience you like that."

"I was inconvenienced when I had to step in and save you." He didn't even look back, but the words stung a bit. "The least I could do is inconvenience myself some more."

"That was unnecessarily harsh," [Name] huffed, falling into step with him and munching on her chips thoughtfully. "Really. That hurt a bit."

"If it gets you to realize the danger you're in, then it was useful."

"You're just an asshole, aren't you?"

"That would be based on opinion, I suppose." Xehanort shrugged, as if he heard the accusation every day and eventually wasn't phased by it. "But you can't walk around without a weapon here, besides. People have died far easier."

"Noted," she said dryly. "So, what's in Scala Ad Caelum?"

He sighed, exasperated. "Nothing much, except for street vendors and weaponsmiths, if you're going for a weapon. Some sell spellbooks, others food and clothes."

"Doesn't sound like nothing to me," [Name] mumbled and gave him a shrug. "How rude of me, do you want some mooglios?"

"No thank you." Xehanort cringed away from the bag she offered him. "If you had even the slightest idea how they were made, you wouldn't eat them."

"Why? They're good." She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "How are they made, though?"

And so he told her, in disgusted detail, not leaving out a single fact or piece of info, brutally informative and knowledgeable about the snack, and [Name] had to hide her own disgust with an amused snort.

"Well, no matter how they're made," she laughed quietly,"they're still good. I haven't had much in the way of junk food here, so it's a nice change for once."

Xehanort looked at her, eyebrows furrowed. "No wonder no one said anything to you. You're an off-worlder."

"Uh, yeah?" She nodded. "I thought that was obvious." The [color] haired girl gestured vaguely to the clothes she was wearing. "But, hey, I'm not complaining if you didn't figure it out."

"I would be." She gave him a curious look. "People here tend to treat off- worlders... unfairly, I'd say, but it is far worse than that."

"So, I'm guessing you count as an off-worlder, too?"

"Unfortunately."

"Say, Xehanort?"

"What?"

"Want to be friends?"

"Why would I?" He frowned, pushing open a small gate in their way that led to an even larger path, intersected with stone pavement instead of stones. "I have no reason to."

"Again, asshole," [Name] rolled her eyes. "Honestly, though, I could use a friend and you're the first person I've been able to talk to without running the other way in fear."

"Mm. It's usually the other way around," he huffed, leading her towards a cliff face that had a large black cable dangling overhead and a wooden car attached to it. A very fancy wooden cart, might I add. "Don't say it."

"I wasn't going to say anything," she defended innocently,"only that you're really a standoffish asshole, but a pretty decent person."

"Should I be offended?"

"Uh... depends on how you look at it, I guess."

He didn't say anything else in reply, the both of them getting in the cart and starting the return sequence. By the time they were over the middle of an ocean, the sun was already setting, and [Name] dreaded returning home by herself.

"Xehanort?"

"What is it?"

"Do you think you could... maybe escort me back home when I'm done shopping?" She smiled pleadingly at him. "I swear I won't call you an asshole again."

"Why not." He sighed, looking out the window. "I have nothing better to do."

"So, does this mean we're friends?"

"I'm not even going to argue with you anymore."

"So we are friends!"

❥


	14. Chapter 14

❝ YOU'RE THE STAR I  
CAN'T REACH WITH  
THIS BEATING HEART  
OF MINE. ❞

❥

"You can do this. It can't be that hard, right? Just press the blue button, pull or push the lever, and you're done! Simple!"

[Name], for the past ten minutes or so, had been giving herself the worst pep-talk of her lifetime, sitting uncomfortably in the pilot's chair and eyeing the giant heartless that was starting to pay more attention to her than the three keyblade wielders whacking away at its tentacles with oversized keys. They were more of an annoyance to it than the giant bombs she was sending its way, deeming her and the not-so-sturdy ship the bigger threat... if a heartless could gauge threat meters, that is.

"[Name], hit the blue button to your left!" Eraqus' voice crackled through the ear piece she'd been given before they had, quite literally, jumped out of the airlock and into open space. "I have a plan!"

"Well, if it gets its attention off of me for at least ten minutes, I'll be happy with whatever you want me to do!" She poked the blue button as requested, being squished back into her seat as the ship jerked back several hundred feet, launching giant orbs of graviga towards the looming heartless speeding her way. "Oh... Uh... that just made it angry! What now?"

"Hit the red button above the blue one! I think that with enough gravity spells, we can trap it and seal it off into another dimension!"

Xehanort's voice crackled through, then. "So you're making it someone else's problem?"

"In... not so many words. But it's going to destroy Arendelle if we don't!"

"Guys?" [Name] squeaked, rapidly pressing the red button over and over as the heartless drew closer. "I don't want to interrupt, but it isn't working!"

"Oh no. We're too late! [Name], I'm coming in and getting you out!" Mickey was present for only an instant, teleporting into the ship and grabbing her arm, taking only a second to put one of the giant air bubbles over her head before zapping them back outside, near Eraqus and Xehanort. "Are you alright? Your nose is bleeding again!"

"Oh, I'm okay." [Name] watched as the heartless gobbled up the ship in one go, all of their supplies, equipment, and food gone in a single instant. "But it got the ship... Now how are we supposed to get to where we need to go?"

"We can figure that out later." Xehanort floated up beside them, Eraqus following suit, both of them having opposing guilty and worried looks. "Right now, we need to land on Arendelle and figure out our next move."

Mickey sighed, keeping a firm hold on [Name]'s arm so she didn't slip away, and his voice echoed through the ear piece again. "Xehanort's right. We're sitting ducks out here, and who knows what will happen if it comes back again?"

"I'd like to know why none of you could even faze it." The heartless was a tiny dot in the distance now, fading away and bleeding into space where it was virtually invisible. "But maybe I need some sleep before I think about that."

"I think we're all in agreement that we need to rest and figure out a plan." Eraqus nodded, pushing forwards and linking hands with [Name] and Xehanort. "I'll teleport us this time and maybe we can find an inn afterwards."

———————ღ———————

"Snow, snow, and more snow." [Name] kicked at the white substance, burrowing her arms in her shirt and crossing them over her chest, even if it did her no good. The world's dress code was very medieval, with thin shirts, long skirts, aprons, and a very plain updo that left almost everything to the imagination. It did nothing to help with the cold, either. "Can one of you lend me your jackets, or magic me one? I'm freezing!"

Xehanort trodded beside her, walking clumsily in the knee deep snow, and looked surprisingly toasty in what could only be called a military uniform, in mostly black and gray, no doubt fur lined and double layered underneath. "I have ice melting in my boots; you're not the only one who's cold."

"S-Same here!" Eraqus' teeth chattering could be heard from miles off. He wore the same attire as Xehanort's, just in white and brown, and had a giant purple sash draped across his chest that he was using as a makeshift scarf. "Master Mickey, how are you holding up?"

The tiny mouse's ears could barely be seen in the snow, peeking up precariously over the white powder and moving to get closer to the three of them, who were significantly behind. "I'm okay, but this snow is really getting bothersome. Could I trouble one of you to carry me? I can't really see over it anymore."

[Name] raised an eyebrow when she caught a glimpse of a riding crop sticking out of Eraqus' pocket, and when she looked over at Xehanort's, she saw he had one too, and frowned. "You both have riding crops; does that mean we have horses somewhere?"

"Mm." Xehanort shrugged. "Maybe where there's not so much snow, or it could be part of the uniform. If someone hadn't landed us on a mountain peak, we would have already been in an inn right now."

"I'm sorry, okay?!" Eraqus lifted Mickey up and onto his shoulder, pouting pitifully. "I didn't know we would end up here, of all places."

[Name] shook her head, glancing up at the sky in disbelief. "Why did I ever want to come here?"

Xehanort sneezed, looking over at her with a frown, and gave her an irritated look. "I believe it was because you wanted to see me ice skate. Or am I wrong?"

"Oh. Right." She tried to smile, but her face felt frozen. "Uh... I take it back?"

Eraqus interrupted them, pointing towards a dim light in the distance. "Hey, there's light! Maybe they can help us get down the mountain, or let us stay the night!"

"That would be lovely," [Name] sighed, imagining what warmth felt like, and followed his finger, squinting against the cold wind. "But who wants to take in three strangers and a mouse?"

"It wouldn't hurt to try." Xehanort surprised all of them, brushing melted snow out of his eyes. His hair was ten times poofier with the snow sticking to it, and [Name] had to smother a laugh beneath a cough. "My boots are getting soggy."

Mickey nodded, breathing warm air into his hands to defrost them a bit. "If we don't get out of this weather soon, we could risk hypothermia, or worse, lose a few fingers and toes."

[Name] marched forward, almost tripping over her own feet, and landed sideways in the snow, cringing when it touched the flaky scab on her hip. "Well what are we waiting for? I'd rather get out of this than stay for a moment longer and lose my toes."

Xehanort pulled her to her feet, carefully avoiding everything but her shoulders, and she barely caught the cringe he made from the sudden movement. "Let's get going, then. I don't want to know what happens when night falls here."

As Eraqus and Mickey went on ahead, completely oblivious to anything other than the prospect of warmth in front of them, [Name] grabbed Xehanort's arm and pulled him back delicately, eyes roving impatiently over his face. The bruise on his face had managed to heal to a sickly, pale yellow color, and had faded with time, but she could see a newer set blooming on his throat and disappearing underneath his coat.

"It got you pretty good, didn't it?" She sighed sadly, reaching over and casting a cura spell before he could stop her, watching the dark blue turn faintly purple, and then into an awkward transition between both yellow and blurple. "And don't give me the excuse that there aren't any more; I saw you wince."

"It's nothing," he dismissed her concern quickly, pulling his collar up to cover the discolored skin. "I wouldn't worry about them. They'll go away, eventually."

[Name] frowned and patted his cheek carefully with her freezing hand. He seemed warmer than she was, at any rate, and it didn't mean anything good. "Oh, be quiet and let me take care of you. You take care of me all the time, but you won't let me do the same. Why?"

Xehanort glanced in the distance towards Mickey and Eraqus, who were vanishing steadily into the snow over a hill, then back at her, steely eyes carefully guarded. "It's wasted on me. For every wound you heal, another one takes its place. It's not the same."

"That's ridiculous." The [color] eyed girl frowned at him. "It is the same, the circumstances are just different. You're my friend, Xehanort, and I⎯⎯I care about you. I don't want to see you suffer silently like this."

The snowfall grew heavier and they were forced to move before it grew deeper than their knees, but she hadn't given up yet, keeping a firm grip on his coat so he couldn't walk ahead of her.

"Can you just listen to me, for once?" She asked desperately. "Please. I know you probably don't want to talk about it, I do, but it's eating you up inside. I can feel it. Eraqus or Mickey may not want to call you out on it, but I can see what road you're about to go down, and it isn't a good one. I don't want you to go down that road, but... I'm hoping that I'm not too late."

He stopped walking, painfully quiet, and was staring down at the snow where his feet probably were, eyes partially hidden by his snow clumped hair. "[Name], you don't want to know. So drop it. Please."

Bit by bit, her heart crumbled as his voice for quieter, more pain filled, and she grabbed his hand, squeezing his fingers gently. "I know," she admitted quietly, sympathetically. "I just... wanted to let you know that I'm here. I'll always be here for you. Okay?"

"Okay." Xehanort returned her squeeze, but didn't look at her until she had looked away. "Come on. Let's catch up."

"Alright."

They caught up to Eraqus and Mickey surprisingly quickly despite the snow, the two waiting for them before they walked into the inn to figure out how to sort out the costs and sleeping arrangements.

"Took you long enough," Eraqus jived good-naturedly, noting the differing looks on their faces and deciding not to comment on them. "If they don't have enough available rooms, would you two be okay with sharing?"

[Name] and Xehanort exchanged glances, the latter of the two shrugging indifferently. It didn't really matter anymore, now that they had no way off-world and no other choice but to comply.

"It's fine with me," she shrugged. "I just want a fire, or a heater... and a bed."

Xehanort nodded in agreement, shifting in his wet boots and not saying a word.

"Great!" Eraqus shelled out a bag of money, a currency none of them recognized, and counted out the numbers. "So, that's... four hundred of whatever this is. Mickey?"

"Sorry, guys." The mouse frowned in reply. "I don't know much about it to be honest. But we should have enough to cover sleeping problems, if my magic works correctly."

Finding Xehanort's knuckles through the gloves he wore, [Name] played piano with her fingers, drumming them against the bone thoughtfully. "As much as I would love to discuss money problems, do you think we could get going now? My feet aren't regaining feeling anytime soon."

Eraqus chuckled. "You're grouchy. Is the snow not agreeing with you?"

"I'm tired," she sighed. "And cold, and wet, and not in the mood to be in it any longer."

Xehanort shuffled his feet in the snow, as if to make a point, the squish of his feet in the boots audible in the crunching snow. "I agree."

"Okay, then, let's get into the inn, then. No complaints on rooms, and⎯⎯there's a sauna. A sauna." Eraqus surged forward, tossing Mickey off of his shoulders and would have left him in the snow had [Name] not moved to catch him with one arm, refusing to release Xehanort's hand in the other.

"I would have thought he had enough of hot water after Destiny Islands," she mumbled, righting Mickey to his feet and casually putting him in her apron, as if she hadn't thought about it previously. "I sure did."

The entire walk to the inn was completely silent; Xehanort too solicited within himself to mind it, Eraqus so excited over a sauna that he couldn't stand himself, Mickey sitting complacently in the pocket of [Name]'s apron, and the girl herself growing too sluggish to even keep up a conversation. Besides, what she wanted to talk about wasn't much of Mickey's business, anyways.

"Ah, warmth!" The moment the door opened, [Name] exclaimed in relief, pulling Mickey out of her apron and setting him on the floor. "I didn't know what I was missing out on until now."

"Yoo-hoo!" A man poked his head out from around a section of bottles, waving at them excitedly. "Are we looking for rooms for the night?"

"How many do you have available?" Eraqus asked curiously, and the man made a ponderous noise, watching as the boy handled a sack of money in front of him. "We can share if you don't have many."

"We have two rooms available," he held up two fingers. "Will the lady be comfortable sharing?" 

"I'll be fine," [Name] waved the concern off. "I just want a bed."

Once the rooms were paid for, they crowded themselves down a cramped hallway, almost collapsing into their rooms with the lack of space.

As [Name] collapsed on her bed, groaning when Xehanort gave an exasperated sigh and pulled off her boots and socks, she mumbled,"Xehanort? That conversation isn't over, I hope you know that."

"I know."

"When I wake up," she said sleepily, burying her face into a pillow,"I'll tell you all about my home world. So you don't have to wonder about it. Okay?"

"Alright, [Name]." The lamp went out. "Goodnight."

❥


	15. Chapter 15

❝ SECOND CHANCES ARE NOT  
GIVEN TO MAKE THINGS RIGHT,  
BUT ARE GIVEN TO PROVE WE  
COULD BE BETTER EVEN AFTER  
WE FALL. ❞

❥

[Name] sat uncomfortably on her bed, gazing out at the snow covered ground with little more than reluctance. Xehanort still slept soundly, unburdened for the time being, but she had woken up in the middle of the night to a nightmare. She couldn't remember what it was about, only a single sentence that she couldn't make heads or tails of: "Mickey, you're too late." 

Late for what? She shifted and pulled a pillow into her lap. Late for lunch? But the tone it was spoken in didn't mingle with any of her theories, and she was coming up blank. They clearly weren't her memories, they were someone else's⎯⎯someone who had been a deliberate bystander in it all, if her past run-ins with them were to be true. So far, all of them had been about sweet little Aqua, and it wasn't far fetched to say this one was about her, either.

"Why are you awake?" Turning her head to the side, she saw Xehanort sit up and sling his legs over the side of the bed, rubbing his face out of sleep. "You should still be asleep."

[Name] moved to completely face him, crossing her legs Indian style. "Not really. When I woke up, I couldn't really go back to sleep⎯⎯I didn't wake you up, did I?"

"No." Xehanort yawned, getting to his feet and sitting beside her, careful to avoid making too much noise and rouse the people sleeping next door. "Nightmares."

Her heart stopped momentarily. For him to admit that was a huge step towards acceptance and moving on; but was it out of his sleepy daze, or just a slip of the tongue? She reached over and carefully smoothed out his hair, which was the worst bed head she had ever seen, and pursed her lips.

"Do you want to... talk about it?" [Name] asked softly. His eyes had drifted shut, but he didn't make a move to push her hand away from his hair, or get out of her general proximity. "I might not be able to understand it from your perspective, but..."

Xehanort opened one eye to look at her. It drifted shut just as quickly, though, when he said,"It's fine. Nothing but the usual memories."

The moonlight reflecting onto the snow made the room brighter than it might have normally been. It couldn't have been more than three in the morning, with the position of the moon in the sky, and her heart silently hurt for him. But there was another pang of sadness, too, something that didn't belong to her. Tears, unbidden, bubbled up to the surface, and she blinked rapidly to rid herself of them, but Xehanort was already wide awake by then, staring at her face.

"Don't worry about it," she sniffed, wiping the ones that had fell away with her sleeve. "It's just me being sensitive."

"You're ridiculous." He lifted an arm and wrapped it around her shoulders, mindful of her elbow, and brought her into a snug one-sided hug. "The dreams don't bother me, and the memories fade more each day. It doesn't do me any good to dwell on them; but you dwell on yours, don't you?"

[Name] blew out a harsh breath, glaring at him out of the corner of her eye. "Don't try to pin this on me." But she caved, anyways. "It's hard not to forget them. I feel like I'm doing them an injustice... like if I don't remember them, no one will."

"What were their names?" He asked quietly, as if he already knew where the story was going. He glanced down when she reaced over and grabbed his hand, playing idly with his fingers, not looking up in the slightest. "Your parents, I mean."

"My mother's name was [M/Name]," she admitted quietly. A small smile formed on her face. "She was a maid in the palace; she loved her job. She said it brought her joy to serve her kingdom. She met my father, there, too, though he didn't even know I existed. Some people put two and two together, even though I look more like my mother... He was a glaive, part of the king's royal guard."

[Name] fell silent, considering her next words, and he didn't interrupt her as she took a deep breath, readying herself to reveal everything she had kept hidden from him, and from herself.

"I come from a world called Eos; a place where gods roam and magic exists only through the king⎯⎯my powers came from my mother. She was an off-worlder. The rules of that world didn't apply to her, and so when I was born... Well, it caused quite the stir.

"She told me she was from a different world, one farther away than I could imagine. I didn't believe her at the time; how could we traverse worlds? But she showed me her memories, once, and I think she regretted it when she did. It gave me enough information to do some digging on my own; I found out she was from a world called Earth. It had been destroyed for years, though, overrun by machines and wildlife... She was the last one left from that world. Everything else was just a ruse."

Xehanort closed his eyes when she started crying, knowing the next part of her story would be the worst part, if not the last. Her shoulders shook beneath his arm, but he didn't release her, just pulled her closer for comfort. "You don't have to tell me. I'm fine knowing you the way you are now."

"No," [Name] sniffed, shaking her head. "It's not fair. I know next to everything about you, but you know nothing about me."

"[Name...]"

"So when an alliance was going to be made between an enemy state and the king, she was ecstatic," she plowed on, completely stopping him from telling her to not continue. "Said that peace would finally be achieved. It was a lie. They stole the crystal, the magic, killed the king, the prince, the oracle... They killed everyone. And then the heartless came; Mickey came. I don't think he was able to save anyone else but me that day."

He could tell she was making it shorter, more cut to the chase so it wasn't so painful for her. Going into detail would probably have broken her far worse than any heartless could. "I'm sorry, [Name]."

"I know you are." She carefully wiped her nose on her sleeve, leaning her head against his shoulder with a tiny frown. "So you know... basically all of it now. There's more, but I can't bring myself to... to say it..."

"And that's fine," Xehanort reassured her. "I don't expect you to tell me all of your worst memories. But it is nice to know where you come from."

"I guess." She settled into a stony silence, having half a mind to excuse herself and sit in the sauna so she could brood alone, but instead nudged him playfully with her elbow. "Alright. No more doom and gloom pasts for tonight. I need to see your bruises."

Xehanort straightened up, stiff as a board, and slowly removed his arm from around her. "[Name]," he said lowly, warningly,"no."

"[Name], yes," she mimed, knocking her knee against is when he moved away from her elbow. "Come on. I let you see my ugly scars all the time, what's one or two bruises?"

"You may not like what you find." The double meaning in that was clear: there was permanent evidence of his abuse, not just bruises and burst capillaries.

[Name] shook her head, reaching carefully for his face, placing both hands on either cheek, keeping him from looking away. His eyebrows were furrowed in confusion and a bit of wariness, and he'd stopped breathing almost entirely, a bit too frozen to actually do anything to stop her. "Nonsense. I don't think I would have come here if I wasn't prepared to find out some unsavory things I didn't know before, now would I?"

"No, but⎯⎯"

"Then it's settled." The [color] haired girl smiled at him, tugged at the collar of his shirt, where the bruises laid hidden, and gave him an expectant look. "Don't look at me like that, I'm not going to poke them."

"That's not what I'm worried about," he mumbled, but obeyed her command, tugging the overcoat off and pulling the shirt over his head. He'd abandoned the stiff military coat before he'd went to sleep, thankful to find he had more layers than just a coat, but now he was regretting taking it off. He didn't fear [Name]'s touch, he feared her reaction.

[Name] had started looking deliberately over his head to give him some semblance of privacy, even if she was going to be looking at the bruises later, casting a light spell the same time he started to reach for his shirt. "... Do I need to mentally prepare myself?"

"I don't know. Maybe." He discarded his shirt, squinting harshly when she brought her hand back down with the light spell, but didn't look down at him yet. "I'm done."

She looked down, expecting the giant bruises from the heartless, and maybe a few scars, but... She sucked in a deep breath, biting her lip, and let it out in one giant woosh. It ruffled his hair a bit, too. "My gods, Xehanort, what did he do to you?"

Now, [Name] could understand why he only ever exposed his arms and face. Every other piece of skin was littered with scars in every shape and size, some making deliberate patterns, others some bizarre language she couldn't read but could only imagine what they read... She reached over and delicately touched the pads of her fingers to a giant 'X' cut into his left pectoral, over his heart, and felt many, many layers of scar tissue, as if his master had deliberately went over it for a singular purpose. A fresh wave of tears started to come and her bottom lip trembled, threatening to let loose a sob.

"He told me I would never have a heart," Xehanort said when she pulled her fingers away. His tone was neutral, as if starting a completely normal conversation about the weather. "Told me repeatedly I was only fated for the darkness. I can't remember when I started to... believe him."

Horror stirred in her gut. "Xehanort..."

"One day," he continued, ignoring her silent plea,"he decided that knives weren't enough, that he wasn't getting through to me as easily as he'd liked. And he didn't, for a time; I told myself it was for Eraqus, that I was protecting him. But over a few months, it started to be for me."

[Name] let the light spell fade out and rested her forehead on his shoulder, grabbing both of his hands in hers, squeezing them until her knuckles were white and her heart was ready to leap out of her chest. He only gave her fingers a miniscule squeeze in reply.

"A few days before I met you, there was something... different." Dread started to replace the horror, the horror replacing the fear. "I didn't know what it was until it was too late."

He took one of her hands and pulled her arm over and around to the back of his neck, the section always hidden by a thick layer of hair. Beneath her fingers, she could feel a raised layer of skin, made in the outline of... of a... "He branded me that day. A permanent reminder of what I was going to be; what I would be for the rest of my life..."

[Name]'s fingers burned, as if he'd physically set them alight, and she carefully unwound her arm from around his neck, the other from his hand, and almost sitting in his lap, brought him into a fierce hug, as if she couldn't get him close enough to share her heart with him, tears free falling down her face and making little rivers down his shoulder and across the 'x' on his chest.

"A monster."

❥


	16. Chapter 16

❝ VENI, VIDI, AMAVI.  
I CAME, I SAW, I LOVED. ❞

❥

By the time morning came, [Name] had fallen into a half-awake, half-asleep doze, far too aware of her friend sleeping in her embrace but not too worried to gain some rest herself. He still slept even as her breathing hastened out of sleep, completely oblivious to the fact that she was staring over his shoulder and at the brand sitting on the back of his neck.

It was an ugly, bestial thing, raised and burnt to a near crisp; when she touched it, it felt raw, bare, like a fresh water burn, even if it was over four years old to the day. Most scars faded to pink, or even a lighter version of the skin color, but this one was stark white and blended in neatly with his hair, and even she was flabbergasted that she hadn't seen it before. But then again, she never had a reason to touch him like that, ever.

Even as other scars caught her attention, her mind still kept returning to the one that was most foul of them all⎯⎯not that any of them were good ones, but the one on his neck made her burn with anger and want to return to Scala Ad Caelum just so she could boil his master in a giant cauldron and brand him like he'd branded his student.

The fact still hit her like a punch to the chest, still left her as breathless an enraged and sad as the moment he'd shown it to her. He'd flinched underneath her fingers when she traced the outline, figuring out the shape in the dark, cowered in her arms and braced his forehead against her shoulder in a rare moment of vulnerability, a moment she would never forget. To feel Xehanort, a man who had protected her more times than she could count, sewn her wounds, and coddled her when she was sick, visibly trembling and as petrified as a stag brought low by a wolf, made her physically ill.

His master had broken him. Maybe not completely, but that brand had no doubt been the final nail in the coffin, solidifying his position in the world. A monster, he'd said, but [Name] knew he was anything but; a bit serious, a bit arrogant, he was the complete opposite of everything his ex-master had drilled into his head. And if he couldn't see it, then she was determined to make him, even if it killed her in the end.

[Name] buried her tears deep within herself, right beside the heart that taken refuge within her, and reached over, gently touching the raised brand with barely the tip of her finger. He didn't move, or wake up, but she felt several muscles beneath her forearm jump and tense, relaxing when she moved her fingers away.

Her eyes roamed the layout of the scar. No amount of magic would be able to touch the darkness that that brand had left him with, even if removed physically. He could have cut it out, made it uglier, but more pleasant scar... instead, he left it there to remind himself.

Because stripped of his mortal form, all the way down to his soul, he only saw himself as heartless⎯⎯and in the back of his mind, with the words of his ex-master whispering in his ear, it was all he believed himself to be.

With a pained sigh, she moved his hair to lay back over it and returned her gaze to the lash marks on his back. She had only seen the front part, what he had willingly exposed, but his back was far worse. Not an inch of skin was even remotely as bronze as his arms, all puckered and pink and white. Some even seemed fresh, still only healed on the surface, curving around from one side of his ribcage to the other, all the way from his shoulder blades and even further, disappearing into his pants. There weren't any on his feet, but she could imagine where the rest would have been, and it only hurt more.

You sweet boy, she thought to herself, carefully playing with his hair as much to calm herself as it was to soothe him into a deeper sleep. Not once did I even think... And I thought my wounds hurt. I even complained about them! I had no right, not when you were suffering right alongside me. You didn't even flinch when I hugged you, when these must have been fresh.

A quiet knock on the door alerted [Name] that they weren't exactly alone in the inn, and she deftly extracted herself from his grasp, replacing herself with a pillow and going to answer it. When she opened it, Eraqus was on the other side, eyebrows furrowed and his gaze dark.

When she opened her mouth to inquire, he said softly,"I... heard. The walls aren't exactly soundproof; I didn't hear everything, just a few bits and pieces. If you could, don't tell him I heard, alright?"

"O-of course," she whispered, being as equally as quiet, and edged out the door, shutting it quietly behind her. "But... he didn't tell you any of that?"

Eraqus shook his head and his expression grew darker, if possible. "I think he glossed over it a lot more than he intended to, for our sakes, if not his own. I'm not surprised... everything he does is for everyone except himself."

"I didn't think... I hate myself for not noticing," [Name] leaned against the door and crossed her arms. "I'm supposed to be his friend, and I couldn't see him suffering when he was right in front of me. What does that make me?"

"What does that make me?" The dark haired boy stared at the floor, then looked up at her, catching her gaze. It was so pitiful and sad that her stomach dropped. "I lived in the same room as him. I trained with him, spent almost all of my spare time with him, and did I notice? No. I was too caught up in my own success to notice he was falling behind."

"He doesn't blame you." She reached over and patted his shoulder comfortingly. She hadn't reached the level of security she felt with Xehanort or Mickey to hug him, but he was bordering on a friend to her, one who was in desperate need of comfort that she couldn't give him. If only. "He never did. I know that much."

Eraqus' smile was watery, and he nodded, even though he probably didn't believe her one bit. "Thanks, [Name]. I think... I'll go to the sauna and clear my head for a bit. I'll see you later, okay?"

He left before she could get another word out, vanishing down the hall and into the main shop area that seemed louder than usual. With a shake of her head, she turned around and opened the door, intent on reclaiming her position as a snuggle object, but froze the moment the lock snicked shut behind her.

Xehanort was awake, staring holes in the wall across from him, and didn't seem to be in any sort of half-asleep daze. No, he seemed stony, cold, as if he'd resigned himself to something in the few minutes she'd left him alone. She hadn't even heard him move.

"Xehanort?" She walked closer, eyebrows furrowed with concern. "Are you alright? You look a tad out of it."

He turned his head to face her, blinking widely, as if he was clearing his vision of fog. For a few moments there, she saw gold, but when he blinked for the last time, there was only an endless sea of steel gray. "[Name]? I thought you... left."

"What do you mean, silly?" She shook her head, plopping down beside him so her hip and thigh touched his knees, which were crossed Indian style, even if it was her itchy side. "I was outside talking to Eraqus. He's decided to take up residence in the sauna for the morning."

His eyes narrowed a fraction, but he didn't seem to do much more than scan her face and look away. "I meant, after what I told you, I thought you left." He neglected to mention the fact that he'd still felt the warmth where she had previously been, that he had jumped to several conclusions.

"What?" Her jaw dropped. "No! Why would you even think that?"

He remained completely silent, jaw held tight and his eyes somewhat unfocused. A muscle in his jaw ticked, and he had to look towards the window.

[Name] frowned and tugged his bangs carefully, moving his face so he would have to look at her. "Hey, I didn't leave, okay? I swear, I'll never leave you; what kind of friend would I be if I left you like this?"

"A smart one," Xehanort whispered, his voice almost a breath of air, cracking like a glacier. "A wise one."

"Then I must not be very intelligent, then, because I'm here." She released his face and, gauging his reaction, pulled her arms back and slapped her hands as hard as she could manage onto his shoulders. The resounding smack echoed as if she'd slapped him in the face. He did jump, though, and she grinned at the shocked look on his face. "There we go, a bit of emotion! You dork, I'll never leave you. I'm way too clingy for that."

It seemed to shake him out of whatever pit he'd dug and buried himself in, however, and he flashed her an irritated look. "As much as I appreciate shock value, that did hurt. You slapped a hurt man."

[Name]'s smile quickly dropped and all of the blood went rushing from her face. "Oh my gods, I am so⎯⎯"

"Got you, didn't I?" Xehanort poked her nose, a minimal smile on his face, and he reached down to pick up his shirt where he'd tossed it on the floor. "Come on, the sauna is waiting."

Her mouth fell open. Where had that even come from? In retaliation, she threw a pillow at him as he was shrugging on his stiff coat, which was much softer than her hands, at any rate. "You're mean!"

"Only when you're being unreasonable," he said curtly, then added as an afterthought,"or predictable."

"I am not predictable," she huffed, getting to her feet and smoothing out her hair. "I'm a complete wild card."

Xehanort shrugged. "I got a reaction out of you, didn't I?"

"That was different." [Name] moved closer to him and trapped him in a hug, squishing her cheek against the hard buttons of his coat. "I thought I really hurt you. Like... him."

His eyes softened, as did the rest of his body, finding some sort of guilt at tricking her to change the subject. "I'm sorry. You could never hurt me, I hope you know that. Even if you tried."

"That's not what I'm talking about." She thumped her fingers against his arm. "I don't mean physically. I mean here," she reached up and laid a hand over his heart,"and here," and tentatively touched her fingers to his temple. "I might not can lay a finger on you in a fight, but there are other ways to hurt someone, Xehanort."

"I know." He let the words sink in, the space where her fingers rested on his forehead somehow uncomfortably warm. "And I'm sorry. I won't do it again."

"Good." And then she pulled away, leaving him surprisingly vulnerable, and at that moment, her stomach started to growl irritably. "Oh gods, when was the last time I ate?"

Xehanort hid a smile behind a snort. "I think somewhere on Destiny Islands. The sauna can wait, I think."

As they left the room and walked down the hall, catching a glimpse of Mickey trotting excitedly into the sauna, [Name] made a small humming noise. "I wonder what kinds of food they have here."

"Nothing exotic, for sure. I remember in a few books that spices are only for royalty, so any food you get will be fairly plain compared to what you normally eat." She glanced at him with a frown and he shrugged carefully. "It's just the way this world works."

"That's unfair." The man sitting at the counter gave them a cheery wave. "Let's ask him what the local food delicacies are!"

[Name] was disappointed to find out that all they had for the winter was a food called oatmeal, which was good when you dumped a boatload of sugar in it, a few potatoes, some dish that looked less like food and more like tromped snow, and, thankfully, orange juice.

Because the snow was piling on heavily and the only warm areas were the shop and sauna, Xehanort and [Name] quickly took up residence in their room.

"I'm not eating it." Xehanort eyed the spoon she was holding out to him warily. "It looks disgusting."

She had continually poured sugar into the bowl until it was thick and sticky, stringy with the stuff, and had been somewhat happy with it compared to the bowl he found perfectly fine on its own.

"Oh, come on!" [Name] whined. "It's just sugar! I mean, really, it's just a bite!"

"No."

They left it at that, somewhat grudgingly on her end, until Eraqus burst through the door in a surprisingly cheerier mood, holding his own bowl of oatmeal. "Isn't this stuff something? Especially when you pour sugar in it!"

Xehanort made a face, [Name] laughing at his expense vicariously.

"Ha! Told you!"

And once again, just for a moment, all was good in the world.

❥


	17. Chapter 17

❝ WHAT WOULD YOU ASK  
FOR, IF YOU KNEW THE ANSWER  
WAS YES? ❞

❥

"This place is just snow, snow, and even more snow, isn't it? I'm starting to believe that this is more magical than nature at this point."

Mickey laughed at [Name]'s words, remarking,"You could be right! Who knows what kind of magic we'll encounter here?"

"Hopefully, not much," Eraqus walked up beside them, holding the reigns of two horses in either hand, smiling cheerfully. It was as if the past couple of hours had never happened at all. "I'd like to find a way off of this world sometime before our ex-master tries to track us down."

"If he hasn't already," Xehanort stated dryly. He stood a bit closer to [Name] than usual, not quite behind her but not exactly in front of her either. If anything, he kept in step with her, almost following her shadow. "He may have found us already."

They'd left the inn hours ago to find the horses they had supposedly been magically provided with, much to [Name]'s dismay and everyone else's relief, and found them snuffling at grass under the snow a mile or two away by a melted pond of water. There were three, one lacking on the account of Mickey's small size, and all of them were huge and in differing colors of black and white.

"You have a point." [Name] grabbed the reigns of the darkest colored horse, one that was a deep slate gray, and patted its neck affectionately. "But I'd like to think he's biding his time, waiting for us to split up."

"It's the logical choice, now that I think about it." Eraqus handed off another set of reigns to Xehanort, taking a white one for himself. "[Name], you can't fight close combat, and none of us would be able to take a master on alone, except Master Mickey. He would probably go after you first, then, and take out the strongest link."

[Name] raised an eyebrow. "You know, you never did tell me your master's name; neither of you did. Is it some sort of rule?"

"It isn't necessary to tell you." Xehanort shrugged loosely, eyes closed. "His name has been lost for a long time, besides. No one remembers it."

The conversation quickly lapsed after that, the girl not having any words after that statement, and they all mounted their horses, Mickey sharing with Xehanort this time around since he'd had turns with both [Name] and Eraqus on the way to the inn. [Name] struggled with hers, initially, because she was in a skirt and not a pair of pants, and had the awkward time of riding side-saddle before she finally got frustrated and had Mickey magic her a pair of pants on.

"Much better." She swung her leg over the knob of the leather saddle and hooked her foot into the stirrup. "And warmer, too!"

"Now that [Name]'s comfortable," Eraqus started with a snicker,"do we have any idea of what we'll do if we get separated? Plus, if we get cornered by the ex-master, or the portal sends us different ways."

[Name] watched as their horses instinctively moved closer together as they neared a sea of ice, and beyond it, a mountain range cocooned around a castle of some sorts in the distance. "So it isn't just magic that will separate us? Portals work that way, too?"

"Right, but it's a bit different," Mickey said. "With magic, it's to maintain order, but for natural portals, it depends on how large the channels are. Say for someone like Xehanort and Eraqus, since they're keyblade wielders, they could go through the larger channels. You would probably go through one of the smaller ones, and where any of them lead is questionable, but they will be in the same world."

"Heartless up ahead!" Xehanort said suddenly, the horses coming to an abrupt halt the closer the giant rotund beasties got to them. "Eraqus, let's get them before they get too close to the castle. [Name], cast a few fira spells to melt the ice!"

"Rodg⎯⎯whoa!"

Beneath her, the ice upturned, cracking underneath the horse's feet and sending them both plunging into icy water. [Name] instinctively held her breath, managing to get herself and the horse out of it with an aeroga spell, landing abruptly on the snow bank a few hundred feet away.

"[Name], are you okay?!" Mickey teleported next to her, eyes worried and concerned as he took in her limp form sprawled across the snow and half buried within it.

"M'okay. I think." Moving slowly to her knees, she reached up and cradled the back of her head with both hands, a groan escaping her lips. "Nevermind, I take it back. Ow, ow, ow..."

"Sit still, okay? I don't know if you have a concussion or not!" Mickey panicked, moving her hands away from her head to find blood seeping from her scalp and staining the snow and her fingers red. "Oh no..."

"So this is the girl who managed to steal my apprentices away. What a waste."

Across the lake, almost immediately, Xehanort froze up mid-swing, leaping back moments before a giant fist crashed into the ice where he had been seconds before. "Eraqus! Eraqus, he's here⎯⎯"

"How?!" The other boy made the final blow, ending the last of the heartless and moving to help his friend. "I put up every warding spell I could think of, every misdirection rune! How did he find us?!"

Xehanort had stilled, staring at something on the snowy shore, and seeing he wasn't going to answer, Eraqus followed his gaze, his heart dropping into his stomach.

[Name] groaned, lifting her head up to look at a pair of boots inches from her face, then at the dark shadows that consisted of a face. Hidden underneath a black hood and coat, the figure was menacing and unidentifiable, but she had a niggling suspicion of who it was. 

"You!" Mickey moved his tiny body in front of her, shielding her head from the blow that would no doubt have broken her neck, a protect spell hovering weakly above them. "How did you find us?!"

"It was easy. Too easy, in fact." The figure in the black coat waved his hand nonchalantly. "Though, your little mage here was far easier to find than my runaway apprentices, of course."

"They're not your apprentices anymore!" [Name] spat on the ground at his feet, coating the black boot in spit and blood. "They've freed themselves from you, you bastard!"

A chuckle. "But aren't they? Everything they know, I taught them. Their keyblades, their magic? All of it, from me. They'll never be free of me unless they lose all of it."

"[Name]!" Mickey dropped the shield momentarily, watching as she started coughing up blood, only to be knocked some thirty or fourty feet away. "No!"

"Xehanort, help her!" Eraqus split off from his friend, moving to the side. "I'll corner him and⎯⎯"

Both of them came to abrupt stops. Slowly, Xehanort lessened from a run to a complete stop, Eraqus barely managing to catch Mickey in his arms before all three of them had to watch in silence, unable to do anything, as their ex-master grabbed [Name] in a chokehold and vanished into nothingness.

"No!" Mickey wormed his way out of Eraqus' arms, falling heavily to the ice. "We have to go after them! We have to save her!"

"I don't⎯⎯how?" Eraqus rubbed his face. "I can't sense anything. I can't even feel her magic signature! I⎯⎯" His voice fell silent as Xehanort started to walk towards the shore.

It hadn't taken much. Just one look at his friend's face had shown him enough to know what he was feeling, what was inevitably about to come. He had seen the look only once, a few years ago, apparently right before he'd met [Name]; it was blank, completely devoid of any emotion, but his eyes were the most expressive of all⎯⎯whereas before he had looked almost dead, now he looked completely furious, a level of anger he'd never let himself reach before.

Eraqus swallowed slowly. "Xehanort, I know we have to find her, but⎯⎯"

"We?" He questioned. Xehanort paused, turning his head only slightly. "There is no 'we'." He started walking again. "Go to wherever it is that Mickey tells you. I have unfinished business to attend to."

Mickey stared worriedly after the boy, long after he'd vanished into the thick snowy mist that had accumulated. "This is bad."

"I know." Eraqus frowned and rubbed his forehead. "I've never seen him this angry before. I can't just leave him to face him alone; I have to follow him."

"Well... it would be the safest bet. And who knows what's going to happen after this?" Mickey shrugged. "We can only hope he doesn't stray too far from the path of light. And if he does..."

Eraqus nodded grimly. "Then our master will have gotten what he wanted after all."

———————ღ———————

One, two, three, four... [Name] sucked in a tiny breath as a foot landed firmly in her ribs. One, two, three, four, out.

Four broken ribs, probably seven fractured, and none of it was as severe as anything she'd seen on Xehanort's skin. It was almost mild in comparison; her pain would never succeed what he'd felt, if at all, and that comforted her as much as it disgusted her that she'd thought that.

Their master had brought her to the top of the mountain they had climbed down on their journey to the inn, defeating the entire purpose of getting down to the surface. She knew that much by the cold. But it was starting to get too cold, freezing her clothes solid and sinking into her bones.

So far, the only thing that seemed to keep her from crying was counting her breaths. And he didn't like it.

"Weak." Another kick, this time to her knee. "Pathetic. No wonder he took to you; you're just like him."

[Name] couldn't let him talk about Xehanort like that. "He... better than... you... ever be."

"And you're defending him, even as you lie on your deathbed." He sounded vaguely surprised. "I wonder... if killing you would finally break him?"

She could feel the blood welling in her lungs. If she didn't get a curaga spell cast, and soon, she would die choking on her own blood, her last words of defense instead of offense.

[Name] had no idea where they came from. First her hands were empty, cold, clammy, and then they were there, warm weights in her palms, with a small voice whispering in the back of her mind, use them, use them, use them.

With all of her remaining strength, she aimed for his foot with the blade, planning to pin him to the rock and roll off the edge, but the metal scraped against rock instead. Foolish. She should have known he would have been able to dodge it. He sent a swift kick to her gut in retaliation, picking up one of the blades curiously. She tucked the other one carefully underneath her shirt, into the waistband of her pants.

"Curious." The master held the blade tauntingly above her, swinging it loosely over the general area of her heart. "How did you summon these, girl?"

[Name] didn't answer.

"No matter. They won't help you, anyways." He threw the blade aside, and she could hear it skip across the rock before falling over the edge. "There's no one here to save you, and by the time my apprentice arrives... well, it will already be too late."

No. The voice in her head was more prominent, louder. You cannot die yet. You must live and guide him on the right path, or all is for naught.

The blade tickled against her spine. "No... I..."

Your aim will be true. Let your heart guide you, let it be the key.

"I, what?" He laughed. "Forget it. Goodnight, [Name] [Surname]."

And then, for her, the world went black, as if there was never any light to begin with.

I'm sorry.

❥


	18. Chapter 18

❝ HE WHOM THE GODS  
LOVE DIES YOUNG. ❞

❥

When [Name] woke to stained glass beneath her cheek and a Wayfinder squeezed in her palm, she knew she wasn't in Arendelle anymore. The lack of pain attested to that. Her memories were unusually fuzzy, as if they were shielded from her with a screen, and when she tried to recall how she ended up here, she couldn't remember how.

"You've fallen a long way to end up here, [Name] [Surname]. Or, is it just [Name]?"

Slowly, she got to her knees, holding the Wayfinder tightly enough that her knuckles went white. Getting up was difficult, as if she was walking through waist deep water and had weights attached to her ankles.

Across the distance of the stained glass circle, there was a man. An old man, but a man nonetheless. He had his back to her, hands clasped behind him, and he was humming an unusually pleasant tune while he waited for her to answer him. From what she could tell, he had a prominent hunch in his shoulders, like he spent too much time at a writing desk and his spine had permanently stayed that way.

"Um, it's [Name.]" [Name] answered slowly. All around the circular platform was a thick fog and she could see, beyond it, the outline of something large, like a building, but the fog left it out of her sight. "Who are you...?"

"You know me, but you don't know me as I am now." His tone lilted, melancholic, and he gestured blandly to the fog. "You more than likely changed enough that you will never have to, at least in this deplorable state."

The Wayfinder burned hot in her hand, but she clutched it tighter. "I don't understand what you're talking about, but I need to get back. I need to kill that man⎯⎯"

Chuckling, the old man turned to face her. His eyes were pure gold, not unlike the bits she'd seen in Xehanort's eyes and dismissed as a trick of the light. He looked almost... evil, but the regret and sadness on his face took away the harshness of his features. "I'm afraid killing Erasmus is not in the cards for you. That is for someone else to carry the burden of... though you won't get out of here so easily."

Erasmus. [Name] filed the name away for later. "What do you mean?"

"This is where hearts sleep." He gestured, again, to the fog, but this time brought her attention to a glowing white orb sitting towards the edge, inching towards shadow. "Your heart is there, slowly creeping towards your eventual demise, or banishment to the dark abyss; who can say?"

"My heart is... sleeping?" She almost dropped the Wayfinder in disbelief. Xehanort and Eraqus hadn't uttered a peep about hearts sleeping or anything to her, and if they knew anything about it, didn't tell her. They probably hadn't needed to, until now. "How do I wake it up?"

The old man smiled. It made his face more unpleasant to look at, but it was one of amusement so it wasn't as disturbing as she'd expected. "Someone else has to. Someone with a keyblade, a good sense of right and wrong. But I think I can help you, as well, besides."

So, his sense of light and dark was skewed, then? [Name] couldn't make heads or tails of it. She knew very little of keyblade terminology, or this heart stuff. She preferred science over metaphorical 'hearts' any day. "So? Can you? Help me, I mean."

"I believe so." He narrowed his eyes thoughtfully, glancing up at the only source of light shining in the distance. It was dwindling, rapidly, and the edges of the platform were starting to darken. Though her heart skittered towards the middle, between them, it didn't stop the darkness from reaching. "But we need to hurry. Your life is slipping away."

"Alright. What do I need to do?" She asked, panic creeping into her voice as one of the shadows crept too close for comfort. "Well?"

He walked forward, completely ignoring her, and snatched the Wayfinder from her fingers. He examined it in the fading light, grinning.

"I can work with this. Let us begin."

\-------ღ-------

Erasmus toed the body of the girl with distaste. He thought she would, at the very least, last longer than twenty minutes. He hoped she would, at any rate, because seeing his wayward apprentice in more pain than was imaginable was an entertaining thought.

But she didn't. A waste of magical talent, physically and mentally. It was such a pity, truly, but he had seen better in the terms of women and talent. Far, far better.

Sensing a disturbance across his magic wards, he smiled, leaving the body to die and cool while he confronted the intruder outside. "And so the prodigal apprentice returns. How will this play out, I wonder?"

When the master keyblade wielder emerged from the crack in the mountain, Xehanort was already swinging his daggers down⎯⎯not his keyblade, Erasmus noticed minutely⎯⎯and caught the front of his coat, the master feeling the painful burn of fiery hot light against his skin. The boy was so close to gutting him that he could taste it, and he leaped away, landing knee deep in the snow and clutching his black coat together, though it did little to shield him now.

"Not interesting in talking, are we?" The master grunted, bringing his keyblade up to clash against the alarmingly hot daggers just in time to stop his face from being impaled. Internally, he was starting to become uneasy, though he bested the boy by far; it was the calm, deliberate, expertly placed hits that unnerved him. Whatever his apprentice had been hiding in their training sessions, he was prepared to hash out now, and he had no clear idea where his skills were leading him. It was like fighting a completely different person.

"No." The green-blue eye of Erasmus' keyblade blinked, and Xehanort was sent flying backwards into a mound of snow, barely catching himself on his feet. The move was practiced, but on snow, impractical. "You don't deserve it."

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Eraqus and Mickey darting into the tiny cavern. Any irritation he may have felt at them following him was swamped as his master moved forward again, casting a gravity spell and causing his feet to be rooted to the ground. Xehanort met his keyblade again, this time sliding one down and between the gaps in the metal, driving it into the bone of his sternum. His mentor had been so focused on knocking them from his hands that he hadn't noticed until it was almost scorching his insides.

"Foolish boy!" His master moved backwards hastily, changing his grip on the keyblade in his hand. Xehanort couldn't remember the last time that Erasmus had actually felt true pain, besides the tiny scratch marks from heartless. "Look at you! You're toeing the line of neutrality now!"

Xehanort didn't really care. "If it removes you from this world, so be it."

"And what about your little [Name]?" Erasmus taunted. "She's in pretty rough shape. The last I looked, she was struggling to evade the dark abyss. She could have already succumbed by now."

"Then I'll drag her back out." Slowly, a double of himself crept behind the ex-master, then another. "Do not speak her name like that. Do not even think about her, I don't want to even hear her referenced from your mouth."

"Touchy." The keyblade master raised an eyebrow. "Alright then. Let us⎯⎯"

The clones moved in sync, impaling the man through his back and out of his stomach. It would only manage to keep him down for a short while, but a good Curaza would heal it in short order. Xehanort couldn't bring himself to even fight him honorably, not even dishonorably; hearing [Name]'s name from his mouth made his gut churn unpleasantly. Most of his anger had fizzled out after that, but he tucked it away and marched towards the cave in the mountainside. His master would wait. He had to see if [Name] was okay.

Eraqus managed to stop him before he went in, a drawn look on his face. "I wouldn't⎯⎯"

But he saw, over his friend's shoulder, anyways. Where there wasn't blood, there was exposed bone, shredded clothes, and... no movement. Not even a shallow breath. His heart started to break, piece by piece. "[Name]?"

The dark haired keyblade wielder's stomach dropped. Xehanort's voice was so tiny and insignificant, pained, that he moved to let him pass, neither of them noticing that the clones had vanished, and so had their ex-master.

Mickey looked up, noticing the silver haired boy lingering in the doorway. He had his hand on the pulse at her throat, desperately feeling for her heartbeat, but was only left with the feeling of slowly cooling skin. When Xehanort caught his gaze, he shook his head sadly. "I can feel her heart, distantly, but... I don't know if she'll make it in time. I'm sorry, Xehanort."

"Sorry?" Golden eyes peered down at the mouse. "Sorry doesn't fix this, Mickey. Sorry won't bring her heart back."

"It isn't his fault," Eraqus shook his head. "It was mine. I couldn't ward any of us⎯⎯"

In the corner of the cave, shrouded in the shadows where none could see, a woman shook her head pityingly. "This was an oversight."

Beside her was another woman, looking as equally as frustrated. "Indeed. But someone has already interfered."

"Have they?" The eldest of the two frowned, peering at the body curiously. "Ah. How ironic. She may still have a chance after all."

"But he may not." The other nodded to Xehanort. "I fear he's descended too far into the darkness."

"Perhaps not." Turning to the shadows, the female shrugged. "She was put here for a reason, as you may recall. I doubt this chance will end so easily."

"I hope you're right... Ava."

\-------ღ-------

The shadows had completely engulfed the circular platform. The stained glass was no longer, now just a writhing mass of shadow. [Name] floated above it uneasily, clutching her heart and the old man's to her chest, looking up at the pillar of light that had yet to fade completely.

"I hope he was right," she mumbled, glancing at the damaged heart beside her own, and then back at the light. "Well..."

"You must find your connection to another heart." The old man pointed to the Wayfinder. "That is your key to do so. You must trust in that heart; do not doubt it. Look back, and there is no saving you."

The Wayfinder hung from her neck, warm against her chest, and she silently counted to ten. She could do this. The old man seemed convinced she could; if she ever saw him again, she swore to get his name and thank him for helping her.

"How do I even⎯⎯Xehanort?" [Name] spoke to the light carefully, watching as it didn't react for a few seconds. Just as her heart started to drop into her stomach, it flared just a bit. "Xehanort?! Can you hear me?! It's me, [Name]! I've gotten myself in a bit of a bind!"

A bind was an understatement. She was closer to death than she liked. The old man's heart started to glow, and she took it as a sign she was doing something right. So she went on,"I need some help here! I'm not a fancy keyblade wielder! This heart stuff is way out of my league!"

A golden string started to form around her finger, leading up to the light. That was good, right? She guessed it was.

"Here goes nothing..."

\-------ღ-------

Xehanort?!

The voice was muddled. He ignored it, adjusting [Name]'s weight in his arms, shuffling towards the portal Mickey had made. It was to a safe haven, he'd said, where no one could find them... or her body. A peaceful place.

Can you hear me?!

His heart tugged painfully, but again, he ignored it. Eraqus walked beside him, glancing to her body and away, as if he couldn't stand the sight.

It's me, [Name]!

The tug was stronger now. He followed it, carefully, and found it led straight into the darkness... in her heart. But that was impossible... He stopped walking.

"Xehanort?" Mickey asked. "Are you alright?"

I've gotten myself into a bit of a bind!

That was definitely her voice. But how was she even alive?

I need some help here! I'm not a fancy keyblade wielder!

"I... it's her heart. It's still there!" Xehanort looked down at her face, which wasn't as pale as it was before, chalky with death. "I... Mickey, what do I do?"

This heart stuff is way out of my league!

"Follow it! Guide her!" The mouse urged. "She's trying to escape! Hurry! We can still save her if she's lasted this long!"

Eraqus looked bewildered. "What he said?"

Xehanort blinked, unsure how to do that, but nodded anyways. [Name]..?

Finally! I was getting a little worried, you know. There's a lot of darkness here... mind helping me out?

I... how?

Just guide me forward. I can do the rest, I think.

You think?

Yes.

When a few moments passed and nothing happened, Xehanort felt weak. Was he hallucinating? He had to be hallucinating. It was all just one giant scheme to break his heart even more.

So when [Name]'s eyes opened and her hand jerked upwards, like she was reaching for something, he nearly dropped her. Eraqus bolted forward, managing to catch Xehanort's weight before he plowed straight into the snow.

She was still hurt pretty badly, and had a hard time speaking, but she did anyways, before she passed out.

"Why are your eyes gold?"

❥


	19. Chapter 19

There was nothing Eraqus could have done, least of all when it involved stopping his friend from leaving. What could he have done, anyways? He was determined to leave⎯⎯whether it was for [Name]'s sake or his own, he had left, and for some reason, Eraqus found no fault within it. Could he blame him for any reaction [Name] had when she woke up and he wasn't there? Of course. But, like always, he seemed to have some other idea up his sleeve.

The anger had, at the very least, diminished before he had left. There was very little that could have possibly kept it at bay, even for Xehanort himself , so Eraqus surmised that he had come to an agreement, of sorts, with himself, or realized that [Name] wouldn't have liked the way he was acting and wished to correct it.

"Eraqus?" Mickey had returned sometime after Xehanort had left the world, nothing but concern etched into his mousy face. He and Minnie had taken up residence shortly after to help tend to their ailing friend; Eraqus couldn't do everything on his own, and with their other set of hands and megalixer supplier gone, they needed all the help they could get. "You look troubled. Are you sure you don't want a break? I know Minnie wouldn't mind switching shifts with you..."

Eraqus balked, shaking his head. "No, no! It's fine, really. I was just wondering what made Xehanort leave in the first place. It's really suspicious, I have to admit. One minute he's as angry as a bull, and the next he's as calm as a swan, and tells me to take care of [Name] because he's leaving. It's all so... Confusing."

"Have faith in him." Mickey patted his shoulder comfortingly. "He wouldn't have left if he didn't have an idea, right? Plus, he's trusting you to take care of her in his stead, Eraqus. Doesn't that mean something?"

"I... Yeah." And now that he thought about it, it spoke volumes; since when did Xehanort ever relenquish his hold over something important to him? In this case, it would be [Name]'s protection and wellbeing⎯⎯that was scary. What if he failed? "Thanks, Mickey. Isn't it time for [Name]'s IV to be switched?"

So far, they had been putting her on a magical feed in the hopes of reviving her to a normal state, and adding that with water so she didn't get hydrated. Food was a concern, at first, but Donald (Mickey's friend) told them that a mage's first instinct when in a stasis is to convert magic into food, hence the magic feed's new role.

"I'd guess so. It's a bit early, but I'm sure it'll be okay. I'll see what I can come up with about the dark lands in the meantime, alright?"

As they parted paths, Mickey to the study and Eraqus to [Name]'s room, the dark haired boy frowned. Everything about Xehanort's plan was risky, far too risky for his liking. Even getting there was one thing, but to get out without any darkness clinging to you was another⎯⎯perhaps even getting out at all was a tall task. And then finding [Name]'s heart in a sea of what could be millions of hearts? Impossible.

That was all he knew of his friend's intentions. He had left a note on one of the largest bottles of Megalixr Eraqus had ever seen, reading: "To the dark lands. Finding [Name]'s heart."

There was nothing that said 'in case of emergency'. If he got lost, he would be lost forever; Eraqus didn't have the knowledge and Mickey didn't have the current power to do so. All of it was going towards healing the last of [Name]'s wounds, and her condition had lifted a bit, but not by much.

Just recently, almost an hour after Xehanort had left, her nose had started bleeding. She hadn't had one of them since they lost the ship, but it was a lot more freer than the last time; they'd had to burn the mattress and sheets and replace them. He was surprised she had enough blood to have a nosebleed.

Sighing, Eraqus finally reached [Name]'s door. Beside the large wooden slabs was a basket of clean bandages, no sheets, which meant Minnie must have came in before he did. The mouse didn't seem to be concerned with anything else other than his friend's wellbeing, seeing as she was virturally comatose and being fed magic almost daily.

Picking up the basket, he opened the doors and shut them behind him as quietly as possible. As he was unfolding the ball of bandages, a shiny glint on [Name]'s bed caught his eye.

"What's this?" Laying just beside her palm was a Wayfinder, albeit a much fancier, colorful one than he and Xehanort had. It reminded him of stained glass murals he had seen once, but these seemed to hold no pattern. On a small piece of metal, her intials were written: [FI/SI/TI].

He placed it back where it was, an even larger frown on his face. Maybe Minnie had put it there? He wasn't really sure. He would have to ask later, then.

As the days passed by, Eraqus had taken to finding stories to read to [Name]. There was nothing else to do after her bandages and IVs were changed, and some of the stories he found in the library were mostly unfamiliar, especially one labeled the Book of Prophecies. It was, so far, the thickest of them all, and was really interesting by far⎯⎯but some of the prophecies really made no sense, like he was telling [Name].

"I mean, none of it sounds right." He tied the last of her bandages into a neat bow instead of tucking it, and put the dirty ones into the basket. "If they were to connect worlds, or... reconnect, as it said, wouldn't that make this world, this version, a farce? And if so... who had created it?"

Certainly no one he knew, of course. Picking up the large book, he flipped to a random page and sat down in the chair beside her bed. It was mostly comfortable, stuffed with soft feathers and a mixture of cotton, but he got the unpleasant feeling of phantom itching whenever he sat on it. "Alright, now... Oh, look, it mentions Destiny Islands! I wish we could go back... Anyways; this prophecy isn't ready to be done yet, so it should be safe to read."

The title was simply labeled: Destiny.

What was so interesting about destiny?

"The prophecy begins with three keys: one of light, one of truth, and one of both light and dark; two of which will see the world to come, and one who will be left behind." Scribbled in the margins were names, names of the 'keys' he suspected. Sora, Riku, and Kairi, huh? "Sounds unfair. Someone gets left behind.

"The clash of light and dark, for the final time, shall occur within the three keys lifetime. The outcome is, however unpleasant, certain: darkness will prevail. Not in this world, perhaps, but sometime, in another, the darkness will win."

Eraqus paused, seeing the rest was crossed out in angry ink marks. He could, however, make out a phrase mostly clean of ink, and written by someone else in the margins. The lettering was clean, precise calligraphy, written with a heavy hand. "Destiny is malleable--but if it, then, is not, then does that apply, also, to fate?"

That... sounded a lot like something [Name] had said, once, during their discussion about time. It was almost too close to be comfortable. If he looked closer, the words had a feminine swoop to them, and he silently glanced at [Name]. Had someone else, someone like her, had that same thought? The same idea that destiny, just like fate, could be changed?

"That's silly, though." Eraqus shut the book. He didn't want to look at it anymore. "What would someone possibly want to change about their destiny?"

Something Xehanort had said, once, surfaced. It was from years ago, and he was surprised he had even forgotten it: it was the first time he'd ever seen his temper flare. "This world, this reality... It's wrong."

And it hadn't seemed like him at the time, as if he was talking about something else to someone else. It was also important to admit he had been eavesdropping to see if he could find out what was wrong.

What if he... had been talking to someone else? Eraqus' mind was running away with him, now. Xehanort's gift with time magic didn't go unnoticed, especially by him; so if pushed far enough, could it transcend boundaries of worlds, even dimensions? Realities?

"Oh." He shook his head. Now was about tending to [Name], not thinking about possible theories to a prophecy he wasn't even going to witness. But... "Sorry, I got sidetracked. How about no more prophecy stories today? I could use something more... entertaining and less foreboding."

Eraqus closed the book and laid it on the nightstand. Next to it was a glass of water, several sticky notes to remind them which wounds needed curing the most, and, oddly enough, another wayfinder; except this one was Xehanort's. Even though it was more of a trinket, he liked to believe that they still helped... and he had left his with [Name]. Did he not intend to return?

"Ridiculous." He looked away, towards the open window, and quickly went from melancholy to bewildered in seconds the moment Donald plonked through the curtains, landing roughly on the hard floor. "Uh... Donald? Are you alright?"

"I-I'm fine," the duck slurred, rolling uneasily to his feet. "I don't think I was supposed to do that."

"Maybe not," Eraqus laughed. "You're in [Name]'s room. Do you need Mickey?"

Donald shook his head, waltzing towards the doors, wand in hand. "I'll find the king, you stay here. I have research to do!"

That was as eventful as Eraqus' day got, sadly. [Name] needed to wake up soon ⎯⎯he was getting bored and worried and a bit too stir crazy for his own good. If she hadn't gotten hurt, none of this would have been happening in the first... place...

He immediately stopped his train of thought. It wasn't her fault that she'd gotten hurt, or lost in the darkness! If anything, it was his fault for not being able to stop him in time. And if he was feeling like this, what was Xehanort feeling?

"Oh, no. Now he's really risking it." Eraqus bade a quick farewell to his sleeping friend, rushing out the door and barely managing to stop in time before he hit Mickey. "Master Mickey! We have to find Xehanort!"

"Pardon?" The mouse frowned. "I thought he had a plan⎯⎯"

"And he did," Eraqus reassured him. "But if he's feeling like I am right now, he's at an even greater risk for losing himself in there! We have to save him!"

Mickey sighed. "But saving him would mean leaving [Name]. And I don't think for a minute that it's an option for him; there's nothing we can do to stop him, remember?"

"Right, but..."

"No but's, Eraqus. We have to trust him, alright? And if he does get lost, we will find him and [Name]⎯⎯but for now, leave it be."

"I... Alright."

❥


	20. Chapter 20

❥

"Limbo. I'm in limbo," [Name] decided. "If I'm not in hell, it's got to be limbo."

If you could even call it that─limbo was, as it were, the same thing she saw when she had gotten her heart back; a circular platform made of stained glass, except now, it had made a picture. It depicted a book, a heart shaped moon, and a figure clad in white armor.

She didn't have any semblance of time. She didn't know if she had been there for days, weeks, months, only that something was seriously wrong with her outside limbo and that she couldn't wake up.

Go figure.

[Name] paced the length of the platform, scuffing her bare feet on the glass. Nothing seemed to change here, even when she repeatedly smashed it, jumped off, or slept; she woke up in the same place she had been in, regardless of how she had left or ruined it, and that was frustrating her.

"This sucks," she mumbled to herself. "I kind of wish something exciting would happen."

But the darkness did not hear, or care, about what she wanted. And ever so slowly, she started to sink ever deeper into the Abyss.

───────⊹⊱✫⊰⊹───────

Xehanort was having a difficult time finding [Name]'s heart. It was almost as if it didn't even want to be found in the first place. No amount of friendship or love would change that; the thread connecting them was slowly pulling apart bit by bit, each chink in the thread slowly, but surely, straining them both.

Time did not exist in the dark lands, wher e darkness itself seemed to devour any concept of structure. Again and again, he found himself lost, chasing the string to [Name]'s heart, falling deeper and deeper himself despite looking for hers.

Besides the lack of time, the amount of heartless left him exhausted and unable to move for long periods of time. They were stronger here than anywhere else, and lurking on the water's surface were even larger ones, ones he would have to fight if he wanted to get to the darkest part.

But for [Name], he would persevere.

He had to.

And their connection started to unravel.

❥


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where the chapter format starts to get wonky. Please bear with it.

Memories were difficult to piece together when you had lost them. There were many ways to put them back together, or get an order that seemed to fit at least one part of the puzzle; but with so many memories buzzing around her, [Name] had no idea where to begin. They weren't her memories, per se, but a different version of her's memories--it was confusing, nonetheless, but putting them back together seemed the only way to pass the time in the darkness.

Her friend, the hunchbacked old man, had vanished a long time ago. Or maybe it was thirty minutes and she couldn't tell time like she used to; who knows? Time seemed to flow differently in the darkness, where everything was muddled and dark and nasty. She found that occupying her time with other versions of herself was an entertaining concept--she had only figured it out around five minutes ago--and was having a grand time learning about her past or most recent selves. A lot of them were walking the same path that she was now: becoming friends with Xehanort, Eraqus, and making the journey throughout the stars to another world, only to encounter the giant heartless. She knew all of that.

But it was after that that their paths started to diverge. [Name] didn't know what caused the sudden rifts or tension that occured between the three of them--four if she counted Mickey in the latest memory. They fought, and wounded each other, but not with weapons, but with words. She had never been so aghast to hear such filth flying out of her mouth in her life. It was enough to make a sailor blush like a schoolgirl. Her only consolation was the fact that they were different lives and different versions of herself; they were bound to be different people. Minsicule things had changed, or happened, to change her, she could understand that.

The memories played out on a translucent screen bordered in pretty edges of scrolling lines and elegant frames. They were as clear as she might have seen them herself, through her own eyes, and the words felt familiar, like she knew them. She was watching a memory from the most distant future, now, curled up on the stained glass, trying to give herself some warmth as the cold darkness swept across her vision.

In the memory, they were in a place of sand, tall pillars, and unfamiliar architecture. She was with three other people, people she didn't know--people with black coats, one with red hair, one with blonde, and one with black hair, none of them familiar. They wielded keyblades, unique in their own ways, and were talking in hushed tones where she couldn't hear. They would look at her, stop talking, then continue for a moment longer before eventually parting.

The one with the red hair approached her, had held out in greeting. "The name's Lea. We've decided we can trust you after all."

[Name] watched with rapt attention as the other her leaned forward and took his hand, shaking it. Her fingers were gloved in white-gray armor, and when she looked down, she held a keyblade of her own in her hand, white with a core reminiscent of stained glass in the shape of a moon.

"It's nice to meet you."

That was when the memory cut out, like noise interference, and the memory screen shattered completely. The shards fell to her feet, clattering against the glass of the platform; one by one, all of the other screens shattered, too, and faded into white light. The platform rotated and rolled, and she watched with dread as cracks started to form in the platform itself.

She was running out of time.

Darkness crept through the cracks, like sinuous tendrils of shadow, reaching, grasping for any part of her that it could reach. Her heart had disappeared some time ago, vanishing into a light that she couldn't reach, but there was no saving her body, and she jerked away from one that touched her foot. But it was already done. Black stained the sole of her shoe, crawling up her leg and knee.

There was nothing she could do.

Xehanort. Help me.

Her stomach twisted and turned as the cold feelers of darkness wrapped around her arms and throat like vices. She could feel it breaking through her soul like daggers, ripping apart the light that was within her and turning it all dark and evil. It was nothing like what she sensed in Xehanort's own heart; it was malicious, evil, twisting and turning innocent intentions into things so foul that she felt she would be sick.

It corrupted everything in sight: the memories of her parents, the feelings she had for them, and... And her relationship with Xehanort. What was once the smallest spark of love was now turning into embers with the potential for pure hatred; [Name] couldn't allow it to take her memories and love from her. She wouldn't.

But she had no choice.

And so she fell deep, deep into the Abyss, without a soul to help save her.

***

Xehanort had trudged through the darkness for over a month. There was no sign of her heart anywhere, and he had looked in every crevice of the darkness, fighting through heartless and darksides to get to her, wherever she was. The fighting had taken its' toll, both on him and on his keyblade. It was fractured into many parts and he could only use the sharp, daggered edge of the hilt to fight off his enemies as they came.

[Name]'s connection to him had snapped some time ago. There was nothing binding him to her, no hint as to where she was. He felt her falling deeper and deeper into the Abyss before it had been cut, and it was the only place he hadn't looked for her. Had feared to look for her in. But it was the only option that made sense--to hide her heart so deeply, it could have only been the abyss.

"You would risk your own life for the weakest soul in this world?"

The voice was old, new, and familiar all at the same time. He knew it, and yet he didn't--felt like he shouldn't know it, but knew it now, even though it felt forbidden. He turned, following the voice to the shore of the Abyss. He wore a dark coat, had no hunch, like the other, and stood tall instead, holding the exact replica of his own keyblade.

He was staring at his future self.

"Don't be so surprised," the man chided, turning to face him. Where there should have been a face, there was a void, and gold eyes peeking out at him. "I'm here to help you."

"Why?" Xehanort lifted his broken keyblade. "You have no reason to."

"Ah, but I do." Future Xehanort walked closer to him, stopping just within arms' length. "In order to change the future, I need to change the past, and it all starts here, with [Name]."\

"What does [Name] have to do with this? She has no influence on my future--"

"She has more to do with your future than you think."

"I don't believe you."

"Do what you will," he shrugged, and handed his keyblade to him without a word. It was more powerful, stronger than the one he wielded in his other hand. "But do find her in time. I would hate to see a future where all living things die, and that wouldn't be good for this version of events at all."

And he vanished, without another word, leaving Xehanort to stare at the sand where his footsteps had been.


	22. Chapter 22

The Abyss was his last hope. He had scoured he remainder of the Dark Lands once again, unwilling to believe that [Name], who couldn't swat at a fly half of the time or entertain even a single evil thought, had simply vanished into the darkness. It was impossible. Keyblade wielders could always find those who were lost, simply by using the light they had been given by Kingdom Hearts. He was supposed to find her heart and take it back. It wasn't supposed to be this way.

She wasn't supposed to be dying.

Xehanort sat on one of the rocks overlooking the shore, clutching his keyblade in his hand so tightly that his knuckles went white. Underneath all of the molten rage and anger that boiled at the surface, he felt sick--well and truly sick to his stomach that [Name] wasn't going to be coming back, and that no amount of effort on his part would be good enough to save her. He had always thought that; that he wasn't good enough to save her. Good enough for her. He was a creation of darkness, molded carefully by his Master to be so. He was deluding himself if he ever thought he had a chance at a somewhat peaceful, light-filled life with his friends at his side. The world just didn't work like that. Not for him. Never for him.

He lingered there for some time. Whether it was three days or three hours, he didn't know. Time passed differently in the Dark Lands, and to [Name], it had to have been an eternity to be stuck within it. Sometimes he found himself unable to recall what she looked like. Was her nose just a bit crooked from repeated breaks? Or was it straight and slim, without a single break? His memories were growing fuzzier as time went on, and if he kept going at this pace, he had no doubt that she would vanish from his mind entirely, and he had no way to stop it.

A disturbace on the water's surface caught his eye. The black water rippled and bubbled, convulting into the vaguest shape of a human body. The water, thick and like sludge, clung to the figure like glue, hiding their identity from his gaze. In one hand, it held a weapon. In the other, just barely clinging onto the third and fourth knuckles of its' fingers, wrapped around with black twine, was [Name]'s stained glass Wayfinder.

Xehanort's heart lurched when the unknown figure turned to face him fully. In what little light the Dark Realm offered, he could make out the vaguest shape of legs and hair, outlined in black tar that rose and fell as if being pulled in thousands of different directions.

But he knew who it was, could feel it in his bones as clear as day, even if his heart was telling him no, that's not her. Mickey had told him what to do if her heart fell to darkness, and she rose from the Abyss a Heartless--but he had been intentionally, frustratingly vague on what to do on how to get out of the Dark Realm in one piece.

The dark liquid parted from the weapon that Shadow [Name] held. Instead of her staff, the darkness peeled away to reveal a glowing blue dagger that he had wielded almost a month ago. His dagger. The dagger he wielded before he had gotten his keyblade, yet still used as a backup.

How had she gotten it?

He didn't have time to figure it out. She rushed him, bringing the blade up to swing at his face. He dodged past her in an instant, hearing the sound of the rock he had been sitting on being crushed to tiny little pieces. She whirled around, tracking him with her yellow eyes--eyes that he had seen as his own for far too long--and followed after him. She didn't walk, she ran, faster than he had ever seen [Name], the lazy buffoon, run in her life.

Xehanort sidestepped her when she lunged forward, taking an expertly placed swing at his ribs, where [Name] knew was his weak spot, and brought his keyblade down on her neck to hopefully knock her out. But instead of doing as he expected, the darkness parted briefly from her skin, exposing some of the hair at the nape of her neck--[h/color] and bright. But it was over far too soon, and it enveloped her once again like a frustratingly thick layer of glue.

Now, Xehanort had a plan. If he could use his keyblade's powers on her without killing her, or burning out her heart, he could extract the darkness from her and return it to the Abyss--or take it into himself, whichever worked in his favor first. [Name] wouldn't like the second option solely because he already had too much darkness in his heart already, but if it meant he could get her back as she was, he was fine with being the martyr.

He leapt backwards just in time to feel the crackling of a Thundaza in the air, raising the hairs on his arms to the point of pain. Just moments later, it struck the water with a shockwave, but didn't enhance the attack as he had thought it would. The Abyss absorbed it into itself, and [Name] was casting another spell--Firaza, judging by the smell of brimstone and ash--and he began to carefully piece together his plan of action.

[Name] was predictable, even as a dark version. It was like facing off a complete replica, except this one was cloaked in darkness. She had the same moveset, same tics and muscle memory. He regretted not sparring with her more often, or he would have had a better read on her attack pattern, and blamed himself that she had ended up like this in the first place. Maybe if he had trained her better, instead of letting her stick with a few spells, she wouldn't have been taken so easily from him...

Alarm flared in his mind when she began casting something different--something foreign. Something dark. It came into being just slightly above her head, the hand that held the Wayfinder held aloft. A black, purple, and red orb rotated and writhed in the air above her, but he could just barely make out the flames before he was being shot at.

Dark Firaga--he had seen it once, but never knew [Name] could wield it. She probably wouldn't be able to outside of the Abyss, but as he avoided another close shave with a particularly large blast, he figured she would have no problem with wielding a normal kind.

Xehanort sighed in relief when the spell faded, and she dropped her hand from the air. He followed the Wayfinder with his eyes. He had to separate it from her, if only to keep her from casting such high level spells.

"[Name], I hope you forgive me for this when you wake up."

And with all the strength he could muster, he summoned the light, and all went dark.

***

[Name] woke up with a sickeningly deep gasp. Blood gurgled down her throat like a fountain, and she rolled over to keep herself from choking on it, hand held to her nose, which had also started pouring at the same time. Pain--sharp, hot, and awful--wracked her body, enough that she started to shake and tremble when her arm gave out from under her, and she was left sprawled on her side, which bled as freely as her nose did.

But she felt sheets under her fingers, felt...

She was awake.

[Name] lurched off of the bed, using her legs to get herself off of the mattress and into the chair. But as soon as she did, a magical alarm sounded, loud and tinny, smelling faintly of healing magic and light--Mickey. No sooner had she triggered it did Mickey and Eraqus barge into the room, throwing open the doors with enough force to have them bounce back and slam in their faces. [Name] forced herself to use a healing spell with what little magic she had in her reserves, pausing the bleeding for only a moment while Eraqus forced his way back through the doors and ran to her side like a man out of hell.

"He did it!" Eraqus said in disbelief. His hands glowed gently with a Curaga and a Stopga spell, which he put onto her ribs with an ease that suggested he had done it before. "I can't... [Name], you're back!"

She snorted, half out of habit, but when blood gushed out of her nose and all over Eraqus, she slapped her hand back over her nose, pulling one of the sheets off of the bed--it looked already soiled by her blood--and held it there to absorb it. "Yeah, but... I don't... Where am I?"

Eraqus exchanged a glance with Mickey, who nodded at him in affirmation. "We're at a safe place, where Master can't find us. We were waiting on you to recover and wake up but, well, you never did..."

[Name], drowsy and lightheaded now that she wasn't running on adrenaline anymore, rubbed her hair and cringed at the oiliness. "Where's Xehanort? I'd think he would be here to see me wake up, or is he just being lazy?"

"Ah... Well," Eraqus tapped his pointer fingers together, looking considerably paler. [Name] eyed him with the same suspicion that she eyed Xehanort with when he was being dishonest with her; he felt his stomach lurch, and words came spilling out. "He's in the Dark Lands, he had to find your heart to wake you because you fell into the Abyss and had no way out."

[Name] blinked. "I don't--you mean he..."

"Now, [Name]--" Mickey started.

"No, don't [Name] me!" She huffed, ripping the sheet from her nose once she felt the bleeding had stopped. A thin line trailed down her nostril and over her lips, but she ignored it in favor of fixing both keyblade wielders with an awfully angry glare. For someone who had just woken up from a deathlike coma, she was certainly fired up. "Are you telling me that pea-for-brains-idiot went into the Dark Lands, knowing full well that he has enough darkness in his heart to keep him there?"

"Wait," Eraqus frowned, unable to stop her from rising to her feet and stumbling towards the doors,"how did you know about that--?"

"Doesn't matter!" She said, taking a lurching step sideways as her hands collapsed the handles, turning them so that the wooden doors popped open with a groan. "Now where... where's the Dark... Lands..."

She didn't even reach the hall before she fainted, dropping to the tile like a stone in water. Eraqus and Mickey rushed to pick her up before she could do any more damage to herself, and together, hefted her back onto the bed where she laid like a corpse, still and tired.

"Well..." Eraqus said uneasily,"At least Xehanort will be in for an earfull when he gets back."

"You have no idea," [Name] mumbled in her sleep, suddenly.

Neither of them moved, but looked at each other with enough worry that their fears were about to be confirmed.

Xehanort wasn't coming back. 


	23. Chapter 23

"I don't think he's coming back, [Name]."

She sat in one of the many chairs lining the giant balcony of their safe haven, curled up underneath a thick blanket with a cup of water in one hand and a slightly brittle biscuit in the other. Her impromptu breakfast was something she had decided to do on a whim, even if her stomach couldn't take much food without wanting her to throw it back up again. Eraqus had managed to talk her out of going to the Dark Lands, citing claims that Xehanort wouldn't want her to get trapped again--which she could admit was something he would say--but it didn't make any difference because now he was the one trapped, and he was the one who needed saving. And she couldn't do that for him. Why couldn't she do that for him?

Her once blank expression soured. Right, because she was in what was considered 'critical' condition and couldn't be on her feet for longer than an hour.

"You don't know that," she said, like a petulant child, and took a sip of her water. "Your turn."

Eraqus gave her a pained stare. When she refused to meet it, he moved his queen forward three squares and took one of her pawns. "If he hasn't already come back, [Name], then he isn't going to any time soon. And Mickey hasn't found anything..."

She rolled her eyes and let a huff of air escape her mouth. "Mickey wouldn't know where to look even if the answer was right under his nose. None of us do."

In the time she had been awake--over fifteen hours, Eraqus had counted--she had gotten grumpy. Then irritated. Then, angry at anyone and anything that crossed her path. An angry [Name] wasn't something he was expecting to experience so soon and so early into their friendship; he was expecting tears, or guilt, or something of that nature, like he himself had. But no, he and everyone in the building had been at the recieving end of her sharp wit and harsh comments. In general, she was grieving in her own way, he could understand that, but if it was at the expense of others?

He couldn't allow that.

"You shouldn't be so mean to Mickey, [Name]," Eraqus chided softly, watching her move her king recklessly--right into the path of his queen. "He's doing all that he can."

He took her king. Her eyes settled into a glare, and she got up from her chair, jolting only slightly. "Not enough, apparently."

[Name] vanished back into the castle, leaving Eraqus alone--and suffering--with his thoughts.

***

Time found [Name] with nothing to do and no one to irritate. Everyone either avoided her or went out of their way to never see her entirely, opting to take their activities or hobbies outside, where she couldn't go for fear of pollen and bacteria, leaving her to observe from one of the balconies. She would watch Eraqus train with Donald for maybe thirty minutes, and grow bored of it very quickly, deciding to return inside to do anything other than watch. Minnie had made sure she had new clothes and clean undergarments, which she was thankful for, but she couldn't spend time with the overly-perky mouse. Like Mickey, she was just a bit too much to swallow.

Picking through the memories she had acquired while in the Abyss eased some of the tension she had with the others, somewhat, and while she would never tell anyone, her research had led her to the idea that the Abyss was the one thing that connected between worlds and dimensions to link them together--not Kingdom Hearts, as some of the books she had piflered from the library suggested--so the Abyss was not inherently evil. Twisted and corrupted by something else for some other purpose? Certainly, it seemed that way. In every timeline she had watched, the first Keyblade War had been the catalyst; but what had started it in the first place was eluding her, like a blind spot that she was vulnerable to.

[Name] reclined back on her bed, playing with the loose strings of her pillow cover. The boy with the blue eyes plagued her dreams like nothing had ever before. Not even nightmares of Xehanort or her home world could combat them; they were, more often than not, about this mysterious keyblade wielder and two others. She knew their names, heard them shouted and whispered.

Sora, Riku, and Kairi.

Sora was the factor that bothered her. Unlike his friends, he never changed in any of the timelines. He was the same in every. Single. One. It was impossible. In some way, tiny or small, everyone changed in the timelines. It was like clockwork. But him? It was like something was shielding him from it, allowing him to take as many turns at life as he wanted without consequence. Once, she had watched him die at the hands of a man called Xemnas, sporting too close of a resemblance to Xehanort for her to be comfortable, only to reappear in another timeline and manage to defeat him.

It was baffling. None of the books in the library had revealed to her that time travel was possible, so it couldn't be time travel. It couldn't be. It was too uniform, too experienced, like he was working on muscle memory alone and not rediscovering things as new and fresh as if he were newly born...

So did that mean an outside force was allowing him to do it?

[Name] doodled Sora's face onto a page where she had written down some of her memories, and turned the page. Her brows furrowed.

Riku. The boy that would have darkness in his heart. The timeline had not revealed to her just how his story went, in the long term. Her memories of all of them were scattered, and what she had managed to piece together, his fate was nothing good. Darkness consumed him, turned him into something else... Something more than he was, himself. It could have been prevented, had Sora--naive, ignorant Sora--noticed the signs. And, a tiny part of herself whispered, he was walking a path a little too close to Xehanort's for her own comfort.

With a sigh, she turned the page, unable to take entertaining that thought for another moment. Upon the next was a girl--Kairi. Of all her memories, this girl was shown the least, and when she was, it was always because she was being rescued. It was never her doing the rescuing, and [Name] could relate to her in some ways; where she had the ability to protect herself and do a good job of it, this girl didn't. She had no spine, even though her words were strong. A battle of the mind and body, perhaps? She scribbled the note into the margins, and let the notebook flutter shut with a sigh.

[Name} was about to put the book up and check in for her daily nap when Eraqus darted inside her room, escorting with him an IV setup. The liquid in the plastic bags glowed green and blue, and when [Name] cringed backwards to avoid his stare, he held up the needle in warning.

"You need nutrition, and if you aren't going to eat, this is the only way for you to get it," he said, voice surprisingly stern and no-nonsense. "Arm up."

"But I don't want to," she whined, plopping her notebook down beside her and shoving off her blanket. "They hurt and make me dizzy."

"Which they wouldn't if you would just take your medicine like Donald says."

"They're nasty and hard to swallow. He can find something else."

"The only other option is to tranquilize you and feed them into your stomach himself, but I don't think you would appreciate that very much." He inserted the needle into her vein, taping it with a bandaid to keep it in place. He then handed her a small cup filled with her medicine, all of which was as large as her thumb nail or more. "Here."

[Name] glared at him from underneath her lashes, but took her medicine regardless, taking a sip of her leftover water when she was done. "Anything from Mickey?" she dared to ask.

"It depends..." Eraqus snickered. "Are you going to get mad and throw things at me again?"

"It depends," she mocked him. "Go on. I don't have anything to throw."

He laughed and took a seat beside her, shoving her notebook to the side. She was almost afraid he had gotten a look at it, but he ignored it entirely. "Glad to see you're somewhat in a better mood."

"Uh-huh. Report."

"Anyways," he sighed,"he hasn't found him, but he says he's getting close. He's pretty lost down there, [Name], and if I'm being honest, I'm surprised he hasn't succumbed to the darkness already--if he hasn't, yet."

"He wouldn't," she argued, crossing her legs to ease the sudden jitteriness that came with magic infusions. She wanted to get up and run laps, but knew her legs wouldn't support it. "I know he wouldn't. He promised."

"I don't know," he said,"you didn't see what I saw while you were sleeping."

"I said," she hissed,"he wouldn't."

Eraqus shook his head, and the both of them watched the sun set in the sky--and in the darkness, someone else watched as Kingdom Hearts never set, and filled the sky with golden light.


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter published on Wattpad. From here on out, updates will be random.

"Anyways," he sighed,"he hasn't found him, but he says he's getting close. He's pretty lost down there, [Name], and if I'm being honest, I'm surprised he hasn't succumbed to the darkness already--if he hasn't, yet."

"He wouldn't," she argued, crossing her legs to ease the sudden jitteriness that came with magic infusions. She wanted to get up and run laps, but knew her legs wouldn't support it. "I know he wouldn't. He promised."

"I don't know," he said,"you didn't see what I saw while you were sleeping."

"I said," she hissed,"he wouldn't."

Eraqus shook his head, and the both of them watched the sun set in the sky--and in the darkness, someone else watched as Kingdom Hearts never set, and filled the sky with golden light.

* * *

"AND HERE I THOUGHT I was the only one curious enough to wander this world alone--eh, nevermind."

Xehanort shrugged his shoulders roughly. The man in the black coat had been--for lack of a better term--stalking him across the entirety of the dark beach for the past thirty minutes. Or, it could have been hours, but he wouldn't have known; time was stagnant in the darkness, he had found, and the stars and Kingdom Hearts never left the sky since he had arrived. Irritation had begun to set in shortly thereafter, although he had been doing well enough to entertain the cloaked figure's wild thoughts and mischievous nature.

"What do you want?" Xehanort asked, finally. He turned on his heel, digging a hole in the sand beneath his boots. "No one comes here without a reason and certainly not out of curiosity."

"Me?" The figure put a hand to his chest in mock surprise. "I told you--I'm here by my own curiosity! But if there was another reason, it wouldn't benefit me entirely to tell you, now would it?"

"I see."

With that, Xehanort turned back around. His destination was never a set one--he followed [Name]'s thin, but loose strand of light, the ribbon connecting her heart to his, and had been doing so for the entirety of his journey throughout the darkness, yet he had not found any sign of an exit. He watched it constantly, observed the changing, shifting threads that indicated she was healing or her rampant emotions. She had certainly had several mood swings in the past couple of days--had it been days?--and all of them were awash with anger.

The longer his days in the dark went by, the more his scars started to ache. There wasn't a moment he wasn't in any kind of constant pain, and except for the several icepick headaches that came out of nowhere, most of it was bearable. Sometimes even his bones felt like they were being squeezed. He couldn't be sure if it was the darkness itself or his body rejecting the atmosphere of the world as it slowly acclimated to his body.

"Hey, wait!" The dark figure jogged forward to catch up with him, pausing at his side. "Come on, you can't just leave me behind! This is supposed to be fate! A journey for two! A fiasco of epic proportions!"

Xehanort scowled. "You can keep your fiascos and your notions of fate to yourself."

"Really? Is that how you speak to the person who's going to get you out of here?"

"What?"

This was what he hated about this cloaked enigma. It was always something with him; thinly veiled hints and insults that rarely ever went over Xehanort's head but might fly by completely to someone like Eraqus. He would reel someone in with his words, soothe them with their wish, and then toss them into a bucket instead of the sea. He had done it not too long ago, before their second meeting on the beach, where he had been oddly quiet--assessing him, probably.

Anger began to blossom in Xehanort's gut.

"Oh, totally," the man said, waving his hand dismissively. "It's as easy as the flick of a switch... er, keyblade, in this case. But I'll need something from you in exchange."

At any other point in time, Xehanort might not have been so trusting of a man who refused to show his face. But desperation, overidden with grief and sorrow, urged him to take the deal and return to the world above where Eraqus and [Name] waited.

"Like what?" Xehanort snapped.

"Oh, I don't know yet," the masked figure replied with a loose shrug. Then, tapping the side of his head, he remarked,"Perhaps it's a favor I'll have to call in someday, when I remember it."

Alarm bells should have been ringing. Instead, there was only hope: faint, but just out of reach.

"Alright." Xehanort nodded. "But... what's your name?"

"My name, huh?" He laughed. "I suppose it couldn't hurt... For now, at least."

"Your name?" Xehanort pressed.

The enigma sighed.

"Well, my name is..."

* * *

"You and your twisted little pawns can go shove it--"

"[Name], language!"

"Shut up, Eraqus! I have the right! You're absolutely wiping the floor with me!"

"Um, right, but--"

[Name] let out a loud groan of frustration and slammed her queen down over a rook. "This is why I hate playing chess when I'm stressed. I can't think."

She couldn't think over the voices in her head screaming for her to rescue Xehanort. But she wouldn't tell Eraqus that. Never.

"Well..." Eraqus took her queen with another pawn. "If you say so. But King Mickey says that you need to keep your mind sharp--"

[Name]'s face soured.

"--in case we're attacked. You're distracted enough as it is."

She frowned and slid one of her knights over to take one of his pawns. "I'm not distracted, I'm just..."

"Mourning? Heartbroken? Despairing?" Eraqus sighed. "Trust me, I know, but sitting around sulking all day isn't going to fix the problem."

"Which is what I've been trying to tell you idiots, but nooo, [Name] is too emotionally fragile to do anything of worth--"

"No one's said that," Eraqus protested.

"Yeah, well, you were probably thinking it," she retorted. "Ugh. I'm tired of this. Do you think lunch is--"

A loud, squelching pop echoed throughout the room. Moments after it, maybe even seconds, there was a loud thud and a groan.

[Name], thinking nothing of it, began picking up her pieces to put back into the box. "Nevermind, lunch has to be a little later. Maybe a--"

Eraqus, frozen, and looking right over [Name]'s shoulder at a still head of silver hair, opened his mouth. Nothing came out.

"--ooh, a strawberry funnel cake sounds marvelous--"

"[Name]..."

"How about pancakes?"

"[Name]!"

"What?" Blinking widely, she looked up at Eraqus, who had gone pale as a sheet and was staring intently at something behind her. Rolling her eyes as she turned around, remarking,"If this is one of your new tricks, it isn't funny."

And yet, her breath got caught in her lungs when her eyes settled on a figure dressed in gray and black, with a head full of silver hair to match.

"Xehanort," she breathed, and fainted.


	25. Dark Road Update

Hello, everyone! It's been a bit since I've updated this, but it's also because I've been waiting for Dark Road information. And I got it, but now I have to make a decision--rewrite with the revealed canon characters, or keep going as I am?

It depends on what you guys would like. My writing skills have changed a lot since I wrote these last 24 chapters, so it would be very different from other chapters if I wrote 25 now, just a warning.

Let me know what you guys think or would like to do!


End file.
